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In Louisiana, if you have committed felonies – murder, rape, manslaughter, armed robbery – you still have the right to own a gun. Crazy, right? But federal law forbids that, doesn’t it? Blame the 10th Amendment: if a state decides to restore that particular right, they can. Even if that state is number 2 in the number of murders by gunshot.

It was New Orleans judge Darryl Derbigny who ruled last week that the state’s newly amended constitution trumps the federal law. The amendment in question was passed last November by an overwhelming margin (talk about shortsighted!) and was backed by….. yep, the NRA.

Yes, that’s right: the freedom to own a gun is more important than any owner’s past record of crime. Think about that for a moment. Someone who murdered another human being has a right to own a gun in Louisiana. The felon’s rights usurp the right of the rest of the people in Louisiana to be safe.

This isn’t just a nebulous or theoretical kind of thing, either. The ruling came in a case that Judge Derbigny was hearing. A 20-year-old man who had plead guilty to burglary was later charged for having weapons in his car: a 40-caliber Smith & Wesson and an AK-47. He also had a 30-round magazine. But Judge Derbigny apparently thought that the man was perfectly within his rights to have such an aresenal, small as it was. Nevermind that it was also quite capable of doing a disproportionate amount of damage. The Judge threw the case out.

New Orleans District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro promises to appeal to the state Supreme Court. Mr. Cannizzaro had been one of the voices weighing in against the gun rights amendment that passed last year, saying:

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“Ultimately, I believe that this amendment represents an effort by some to transform Louisiana into an unrestricted concealed carry state,” he wrote last November. “That is a state in which any individual is legally entitled to carry a concealed weapon without a permit or criminal background check, and without regard to criminal history.”

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What kind of craziness dwells in the minds of those who think that it is fine – nay, good – to allow people who have been convicted of violence against others to own a gun? It’s insanity. Sheer insanity. More at http://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/04/18/louisiana-judge-rules-to-allow
-violent-felons-to-have-guns/

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