====== FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ======

America First Party
1630 A 30th Street #111
Boulder, Colorado 80301
http://www.AmericaFirstParty.org

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Court Affirms: Right to Bear Arms Predates U.S. Constitution

Boulder, CO - The America First Party applauds the D. C. Court of Appeals for its recent decision to throw out the District of Columbia's oppressive 31 year old gun regulations. Its strongly worded defense of the Second Amendment asserts that the right to bear arms is individual, not collective, and that the right to individual firearm ownership pre-existed the Constitution. If the District appeals, the case will pass to the Supreme Court and hopefully result in the overturning of unconstitutional gun regulations nationwide.

The District of Columbia and most Federal appeals courts hold that the right to bear arms is a collective right wholly predicated on membership in a militia. Some postulate that since militias no longer exist, the Second Amendment is no longer effective. This absurd interpretation is contradicted by the fact that the first nine articles of the Bill of Rights relate to individual rights. While affirming this point, the D. C. Appeals Court also observed that if mere defense of militias had been the object of the Second Amendment, the first Congress would have likely enacted a more direct statement to that effect.

National Chairman Jonathan Hill stated, "If there is a natural and unalienable right to life, as the Declaration states, then there is necessarily a natural right to defend that life. In some circumstances, an effective defense is not practical without a firearm. This means that there is a natural right to bear arms that pre-exists the Second Amendment and which has existed since the invention of firearms. The Second Amendment only seeks to guarantee that this pre-existing right 'shall not be infringed.'"

National Secretary John Pittman Hey stated, "The D. C. Appeals Court acknowledged that the right to bear arms relates to 'private purposes' as well as public civic purposes such as maintenance of the militia. These private purposes, the court stated, were understood to include defense against violent criminals and resistance to 'tyrannical government.'"

The America First Party platform expresses support for Second Amendment rights as guaranteed by the United States Constitution and as given to us by Almighty God. The platform declares this to be an individual's right, and calls for repeal of all unconstitutional gun laws.

Contacts:
Jonathan Hill, National Chairman, 1-866-SOS-USA1, ext. 4
John Schweingrouber, Press Secretary, 1-866-SOS-USA1, ext. 2

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