The Patriot Post Digest 1-23-2019

________________________________
The Patriot Post Digest 1-23-2019
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
_______________________________

The Patriot Post® · Mid-Day Digest

Jan. 23, 2019 · https://patriotpost.us/digests/60727-mid-day-digest

THE FOUNDATION

“Whereas, to preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them; nor does it follow from this, that all promiscuously must go into actual service on every occasion. The mind that aims at a select militia, must be influenced by a truly anti-republican principle; and when we see many men disposed to practice upon it, whenever they can prevail, no wonder true republicans are for carefully guarding against it.” —Federal Farmer (1787)

https://patriotpost.us/fqd/60726-founders-quote-daily

IN TODAY’S EDITION

After a decade, the Supreme Court will finally weigh in on gun rights.1
Four Nevada residents were murdered by an illegal alien.2
Daily Features: On the Web3, Columnists4, Headlines5, Memes6, Cartoons7, Opinion in Brief8, and Short Cuts9.

IN BRIEF

Supreme Court Puts New York City Gun Ban on Trial10

Jordan Candler

It’s been close to a decade since the Supreme Court wrangled with a case pertaining to the Second Amendment, but that’s about to change. The 2010 case McDonald v. City of Chicago currently denotes the last instance in which the Supreme Court intervened on an issue directly related to the Second Amendment, though McDonald largely piggybacked on the benchmark 2008 case District of Columbia v. Heller.

On Tuesday, however, “The justices agreed to consider a petition backed by gun owners’ groups asking them to strike down New York City’s strict rules for carrying legally owned guns outside the home,” USA Today reports11. “The rules do not allow gun owners to transport firearms outside city limits, even to practice ranges or second homes. Lower courts have upheld the city’s regulations.”

Gun-rights activists explained to the Supreme Court, “It is business as usual for draconian restrictions in New York, and this court’s transformational rulings remain theoretical for the city’s 8.5 million residents.” Yet the city contends, “Unlike golf clubs and musical instruments, firearms present public safety risks that the city has a legitimate interest in protecting against. Limiting their possession and use in public minimizes the risk of gun violence.” Assuming expectations become reality, the city’s argument won’t pass muster with the Supreme Court.

The Wall Street Journal notes12, “The case will put a spotlight on the court’s newest justice, Brett Kavanaugh, whose expansive view of gun rights while a lower-court judge came into focus during confirmation hearings last fall. In 2011, while serving on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, then-Judge Kavanaugh dissented from an opinion upholding a D.C. law prohibiting semiautomatic rifles it classified as ‘assault weapons’ within city limits and barring large-capacity ammunition magazines.”

The Journal adds, “Judge Kavanaugh … wrote that ‘the Constitution disables the government from employing certain means to prevent, deter, or detect violent crime,’ a position that helped inspire the National Rifle Association to back his confirmation last year with a major advertising campaign.”

In November, our Brian Mark Weber observed13, “The [Heller] ruling came far too late to push back against decades of leftist propaganda and activism designed to convince millions of Americans that the Second Amendment was far different from the other nine rights — that it was neither individual nor narrowly limited but collective and extremely limited. Since then, lower courts have had a field day misinterpreting the Constitution and upholding laws making it harder for citizens to acquire guns.”

He added, “All this would be of less concern if the Supreme Court and its new, more conservative majority would simply take up more Second Amendment cases and decisively reestablish the self-evident right of American citizens to defend themselves. Indeed, the High Court may be the last best hope for securing this right against a leftist obsession to take it away.” The Supreme Court this week made a positive step toward doing just that. And thanks to President Donald Trump’s sublime Supreme Court picks, the prognosis is looking good.

https://patriotpost.us/articles/60697-supreme-court-puts-new-york-city-gun-ban-on-trial

Illegal Wolves Enter Among the Sheep14

Nate Jackson

Kate Steinle. Ronald da Silva. Sarah Root. Mollie Tibbetts. California police officer Ronil Singh. These are just some of the names of Americans who lost their lives at the hands of illegal immigrants — people who shouldn’t have been in the country, some of whom had already been deported and returned here anyway. Sadly, we can add four Nevada residents, three of them elderly, to that list: Gerald and Sharon David, Connie Koontz, and Sophia Renken, all of whom were allegedly murdered this month by Wilbur Ernesto Martinez-Guzman, a 19-year-old illegal alien.

Since Nevada is not a sanctuary state like neighboring California15, law-enforcement officials were able to hold Martinez-Guzman on immigration charges while they collected additional evidence on the murder cases. Carson City Sheriff Ken Furlong said the suspect “was likely in the United States illegally and was detainable.” And Washoe County Sheriff Darin Balaam said authorities “feel confident” they have “evidence that will link him to all four homicides,” as well as burglary and possession of stolen property.

There are, of course, success stories of apprehending criminal illegal aliens before they harm any Americans. The Washington Times reports16, “Zabi-Ullah Hemmat wasn’t just one of 415,816 illegal immigrants caught at the southwest border in fiscal 2016. Nor was he just another of the 84 people from Afghanistan apprehended by Border Patrol agents that year. … Mr. Hemmat is one of the terrorism suspects caught trying to sneak into the U.S. from Mexico.” Authorities found him on the no-fly list.

The Department of Homeland Security says 3,000 similarly “special interest” migrants were “encountered” by border agents in 2018. But, warned DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, “These are just the terror suspects we know about who reach our border.”

Exactly. But rather than secure our border, Democrats want to keep the government shut down and expand “sanctuary” cities. It’s worth noting that the vast majority of illegals truly are just trying to make a better life for themselves in America. Yet there are wolves among the sheep, and something must be done to keep them out.

https://patriotpost.us/articles/60723-illegal-wolves-enter-among-the-sheep