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You Have the Right to Bear Arms, Not “Electrical” Arms, Court Declares

posted by janrinok on Tuesday March 10 2015, @11:28AM   
from the founding-fathers-didn't-have-tazers dept.

AnonTechie writes:

Massachusetts' ban on the private possession of stun guns—an "electrical weapon" under the statute—does not violate the Second Amendment right to bear arms, the state's top court has ruled.

The decision says ( http://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/stungunMA-ruling.pdf ) (PDF) that the US Constitution's framers never envisioned the modern stun-gun device, first patented in 1972. The top court said stun guns are not suitable for military use, and that it did not matter whether state lawmakers have approved the possession of handguns outside the home.

The court, ruling in the case of a Massachusetts woman caught with stun gun, said the stun gun is a "thoroughly modern invention" not protected by the Second Amendment, although handguns are protected.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/03/you-have-the-right-to-bear-arms-not-electrical-arms-court-declares/

• Re:They didn't envision a lot of things (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 10 2015, @03:26PM

  by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 10 2015, @03:26PM (#155452)

  The idea was this. You spoke up about someone. They could then hold what religion you were, pick you up with no warrant, search your house and 'find a gun' (because everyone had them anyway), suddenly you were a subversive....

  That's pretty much exactly what happens today, except instead of 'find a gun' its 'find drugs' or 'find kiddie porn', and once either of those are found its goodbye rights and goodbye being treated as a human being by everyone.

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