From: [r--e--l] at [nyc.pipeline.com] (Roy Weil)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.guns
Subject: Gun free school zone law knocked down
Date: 26 Apr 1995 15:17:25 -0400

I just received this off of a news feed. 
 
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From: [C ap] at [clarinet.com] (AP) 
Subject: High Court Knocks Down Gun Law 
Date: Wed, 26 Apr 95 8:10:23 PDT 
 
	WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court on Wednesday threw out a 
federal law that bans possession of a gun within 1,000 feet of a 
school, saying Congress lacked the authority to enact it. 

	Ruling 5-4 in a Texas case, the court said the law does not fall 
within Congress' authority to regulate interstate commerce. 
	The 1990 Gun-Free School Zones Act ``is a criminal statute that 
by its terms has nothing to do with `commerce' or any sort of 
economic enterprise, however broadly one might define those 
terms,'' Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist wrote for the court. 
	States have the primary authority to enact and enforce criminal 
laws, the court said. Justice Anthony M. Kennedy noted in a 
concurring opinion that more than 40 states already outlaw gun 
possession on or near school grounds. 
	Congress can enact laws under its power to regulate interstate 
commerce only to regulate activity that ``substantially'' affects 
such commerce, the court said. 
	The court rejected the Clinton administration's argument that 
gun possession near schools may result in violent crime, which in 
turn can harm the national economy. 
	``Under the government's `national productivity' reasoning, 
Congress could regulate any activity that it found was related to 
the economic productivity of individual citizens: family law ... 
for example,'' the chief justice wrote. 
	``If we were to accept the government's arguments, we are 
hard-pressed to posit any activity by an individual that Congress 
is without power to regulate,'' Rehnquist wrote. 
	Wednesday's decision denied the government's bid to reinstate a 
former San Antonio high school student's conviction for carrying a 
gun to school. 
	Alfonso Lopez Jr. said he was given the gun to deliver to 
someone else for $40 to use in what Lopez described as a ``gang 
war.'' 
	More than 200,000 children carry firearms to school every day, 
according to Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wis., the sponsor of the 1990 
Gun-Free School Zones Act. 
	Sixty-five students and six school employees were shot and 
killed at U.S. schools during the five years before the law was 
enacted, according to the Center to Prevent Handgun Violence. 
	But a federal appeals court threw out Lopez's conviction for 
bringing a .38-caliber handgun and five bullets to school in March 
1992. He had been sentenced to six months in prison. 
	The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals noted that the 
Constitution allows Congress to regulate interstate commerce. But 
the appeals court said the school gun law was invalid because it 
did not spell out how gun possession near schools affects 
interstate commerce. 
	The Clinton administration argued that gun-related violence at 
schools harms the national economy by making it hard for schools to 
function. 
	Lopez's lawyer said almost any activity can be described as 
affecting interstate commerce, but the 1990 law's connection was 
too weak. 
	Wednesday, the Supreme Court agreed. 
	Rehnquist wrote that Lopez ``was a local student at a local 
school; there is no indication that he had recently moved in 
interstate commerce.'' 
	If Congress could regulate activities that harm the educational 
environment, it also could directly regulate schools -- perhaps even 
by mandating a federal school curriculum, the chief justice added. 
	Joining Rehnquist's opinion along with Kennedy were Justices 
Sandra Day O'Connor, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas. 
	Dissenting were Justices John Paul Stevens, David H. Souter, 
Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer. 
	Writing for the four, Breyer contended the school gun law 
``falls well within the scope of the commerce power'' granted to 
Congress by the Constitution. 
	``Upholding this legislation would do no more than simply 
recognize that Congress had a `rational basis' for finding a 
significant connection between guns in or near schools and (through 
their effect on education) the interstate and foreign commerce they 
threaten,'' Breyer wrote. 
	The case is U.S. vs. Lopez, 93-1260. 
 
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Not that I think guns & kids mix, but it I am glad that the court saw that
it was a weak argument on the Feds side that kids bringing guns to school
effects interstate commerce and that the issue is for each individual state
to decide. 
 
***************** 
Thomas Geiger 
using Michael Baker Corp.'s account 
These opinions are mine and not necessarily those of my employer