SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
from the founding-fathers-didn't-have-tazers dept.
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.
(Score: 2) by Anal Pumpernickel on Tuesday March 10 2015, @07:29PM
None of our rights are absolute
In the US, if the constitution says they are, then the government has no legitimate authority to claim otherwise.
they all are subject to tests of reasonableness
As defined by the constitution. Sometimes there are no tests of "reasonableness" at all.
There is no reason a right couldn't logically be absolute. That the government chooses to ignore the constitution is a different matter. Some rights are absolute if you apply a logical interpretation of the constitution, rather than modifying it with invisible ink so you can include restrictions you believe are 'reasonable.'
I tend to think that keeping track of ownership of dangerous things is not an infringement on one's right to keep and bear them
Nonsense. What happens if you don't allow yourself to be tracked? You will be punished for keeping and bearing arms in a way the government did not like, which obviously violates your rights.
but don't pretend that an absolute interpretation of our rights is the only valid one, or even the norm.
Whether it is valid or not depends on the issue; sometimes it is. As for being the norm, I don't care what is the norm; most people are both ignorant and unintelligent. Plenty support the NSA's mass surveillance, after all.