sikacz wrote: Mon Sep 10, 2018 10:41 pm
Feinstein is agenda driven and blinded by her ignorance. Numbers matter, semi-automatic weapons are among the most common in ownership among gun owners. That is common use. Add in use by law enforcement which is a civil branch, no argument what is common.
I'm not a lawyer, but I know that what you and I think a term means does not necessarily mean that in the law. Somewhat vague terms create problems for future cases. Law is, somewhat strangely, made at the margins--at the very edge of what is... and what isn't. "It depends on what the meaning of is, is" is the infamous example of that.
If a cop stops you doing 75 in a 65 zone, you're pretty much speeding. But if he catches you doing exactly 80, where, in many states means reckless driving with far greater penalties, your attorney, if he/she is any good, is going to argue that there is enough of a margin of error in ALL speed measuring equipment that the charge cannot be, with any assurance, that you actually WERE going 80 or more. Margins.
In football, the out-of--bounds marker is about as wide as a human foot. But to make the definition clear, if, on the replay, there is no discernible bit of grass between the shoe and the line, the rule says you stepped on the line. A clear definition at the margin.
One of the reasons, almost 100 years ago, that the Senate rejected the League of Nations, was that "aggression" wasn't defined. They were not impressed when President Wilson opined "I'll know aggression when I see it." No definition of the margin. But Wilson was an historian, not a lawyer.
Yeah, I agree with you that semi-automatic weapons SHOULD be considered "common use" and even the so-called "assault weapons" are also in "common use"--they are in every gun shop I've been in and millions are out there. But Feinstein, like ALL lawyers, is pushing against a term that doesn't have a clear, defined, established definition UNDER THE LAW. Every lawyer does that--it's "Plan B".
You know the advice given young law students:
"If you have the evidence, pound the evidence. If you don't have the evidence but have the law, pound the law. If you don't have the evidence, and you don't have the law, pound the table!"
Senator Feinstein is pounding the law.
"Even if the bee could explain to the fly why pollen is better than shit, the fly could never understand."