1y ago

Hawaii cannot ban guns on beaches, US judge rules

www.reuters.com Hawaii cannot ban guns on beaches, US judge rules

A federal judge has blocked the state of Hawaii from enforcing a recently enacted ban on firearms on its prized beaches and in other areas including banks, bars and parks, citing last year's landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling expanding gun rights.

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What happened to respecting states rights? So sick of the judicial branch in the US, the most untethered and corrupt branch of them all. Which is saying a lot considering the state of the legislative branch.
- Republicans only care about state’s rights when they can use state law to push one of their terrible policies at state level because they can’t force it nationally.
  
  i.e. slavery
- States' rights only exists in the eyes of Conservatives if it's related to owning other humans.
- Republicans want all power consolidated at the level they can most effectively control. They were only ever about "states' rights" because they typically are better at capturing state governments than national institutions.
- Nothing else matters when something like MUH GUNS are at stake
- It was never a thing, and the GOP has never given a shit about it.
- Republicans have no political platform, but they do have a judicial agenda.
- Ummmm, pretty sure the fucking bill of rights trumps state right ffs.
  
  Until 15 years ago, there wasn't an individual right to bear arms, so talking about "the Bill of Rights" really just means "the Conservative Supreme Court".
  
  The rights outlined in the Bill of Rights are natural rights and predate the document.
  
  And nothing in the Bill of Rights says you have an individual right to constantly be armed for personal safety.
  
  Pretty sure that the "shall not be infringed" part of bearing arms covers that. The 2nd amendment is an individual right, so there you go. If you are trying to say that the 2nd is somehow the only non-individual right in the Bill of Rights, I'd argue poor context interpretation. If you are trying to say that it requires militia affiliation, I'd argue that the Militia Act that required the people to supply their own guns and ammo pretty effectively proves the people were supposed to be armed before being called to the militia. If you are arguing that you just don't like the 2nd, then get ~75% of the country and state governments to agree with you and update or repeal it with the required constitutional amendment.
  
  If the Second Amendment was clear in its individual right to bear arms for personal protection (a much different thing from just owning guns), then it wouldn't have taken until 2008 for it to be recognized, and anyone pretending the Second Amendment is a clearly worded amendment with broadly agreed on meaning is just delusional.
  
  Previous supreme courts have ruled that the constitution only applied to the federal government, allowing states to restrict the rights of their citizens to vote, speak, assemble, etc. Does that mean that it isn't clear that our individual and constitutional rights were intended to apply at a state or local level? I am not saying that it is broadly agreed upon, but I do think that the founder's documents and correspondence surrounding the Bill of Rights, along with contemporary laws like the Militia Act, provide enough context for it being an individual right.
  In 1792 the government required that the individual would have their own rifle, bayonet, gunpowder, and ammunition to bring with them if they answered the called to join the militia, which is hard to do if they didn't have the right to individually own said guns and ammo. Same with the fact that every other amendment in the BoR is an individual right.
  If it was only the ability to own guns so that they could be brought in case the owner was called to join a militia, but not to use them in any other way why would it specify the right to bear those arms and not just to keep or own them? If the individual right is to own guns and use them as tools for hunting and sport, where does the limitation on using them for defense come from? Are knives or any other tools that can be used in a fight included in any of this? I'd consider knives under the right to bear arms, plus it is a frequent argument that they serve other purposes so get an exception.
  
  Ignoring the inexplicable diversion into the Constitution's applicability to states.
  You keep arguing against a straw man (no ownership) rather than the actual point (no absolute right to free carry/use). You can have an individual right to own weapons for the purpose of being a part of a militia without having an inherent right to use those weapons for other purposes.
  As to the "bear arms" it's still in the context of a militia. You can't be arrested for being in a militia. You and your buddies can march around, showing that you're ready to rebel against an oppressive government, but that doesn't mean YOU can individually walk down Main Street firing into the air. There's a prosocial and political benefit from the citizenship being able to rebel, there isn't one for having random people be constantly armed for resolving personal disputes.
  
  I thought it was pretty clear my response on supreme court interpretation changing when rather wrong, either obviously or on new technicality, was directly addressing your statement that the individual right to both own and carry arms changed in 2008. I also think you may want to brush up on what a straw man is, as I am directly engaging with your statements to get a handle on your viewpoint and opinion. I apologize if you were saying that we have a right to own military hardware and NFA regulated weapons, as long as we never use them alone or for personal reasons (this would be taking your statement to a probably absurd degree).
  My mention of ownership was because prior to 2008, states could prevent you from buying guns as well as preventing bearing them. I would also like to point out that it is certainly legally shakey to form a private militia or paramilitary organization, with multiple laws and even state constitutions outlawing it. I mention this because outlining an individual right to bear arms to prevent the government from arresting their own soldiers for carrying a gun under military orders just doesn't make sense. I am also curious if you also believe that hunters for the past 200+ years have been breaking the law, using their guns for purposes other than military service. I'm also pretty sure walking down Main Street firing guns randomly is a crime, reckless endangerment at the least, even under the most lax interpretation of the 2nd, and completely different than acting against a credible threat to your life.
  Also rebellion is especially illegal, even if/when benefitial or even necessary. It is definitely an opinion that having an armed populace has no prosocial benefits that can be debated. Minority and oppressed populations are harder to victimize when armed. Anyone who has saved their life thought defensive use of a weapon would also disagree with you. The police have no legal obligation to save or help you or anyone else, so making self defense illegal outside of pure hand to hand combat leaves people vulnerable. If melee arms are allowed under the 2nd and the inferred right to self defense, why wasn't there a distinction made on what kind of arms. Or are they not covered under the 2nd? Genuinely curious on your view of using an available knife or bat or crowbar if someone tries to gravely injure or kill you.
  I would also like to argue that no other right in the Bill of Rights requires you to be in or part of a group, either actively or passively, to have them apply or be exercised. Even though a free press is essential for a free society, we don't have to get a degree in journalism or join a newspaper to have freedom of speech and association.
  
  Militias aren't government controlled. That's the whole damn point. You regulate them if they're doing dangerous stuff like practicing next to a school, but you can't do things that are effectively preventing them from existing.
  For your questions on hunters and ownership and whatever, there's a difference between constitutionally protected and legal. States can say hunting with guns of various types (you'll note there are restrictions). You don't need the constitution to make something legal and it not being constitutionally protected doesn't make it illegal. States can legalize or restrict firearms for anything that does not prevent the citizenry from forming a well-regulated militia. Having your guns locked up and disassembled when not in use in training doesn't prevent you from forming an effective(-ish) militia so DC vs. Heller was badly decided (5-4! it was a contentious decision split along political lines).
  All the other weapons are arms too and if owned for the purpose of militia service, should be legal. If not, states can decide which weapons are appropriate for which purposes. Texas can decide cowboys were super cool and everyone should have a mandatory six shooter while peaceful Hawaii can decide guns are good for hunting pigs and bad for going to the beach. And if we decide we want to change one or the other, that's our business, because the government can regulate things that don't involve preventing the citizenry from rising up against it.
- Hawaii is a colonial project and isn't respected by the federal court circuits in the same manner that continental states are. It's closer to Guam and Puerto Rico than other states in that it carries disproportionate financial and military burdens, including the effects from the Jones act for example.
  
  I gotta say, my understanding of MLism is pretty spotty, but a Lemmygrad user opposing the Jones Act seems really weird.
  Anti-Jones arguments are generally just raw-freetradeism -- advocating to remove protectionist regulations so businesses can off-shore (literally off shore) their shipping to cheaper foreign crews, with the (supposed) benefit being that they will save money and then pass the savings on to the consumer. Were you a big NAFTA fan as well?
  
  Prices in US territories such as Guam, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico are sky-high due to the Jones Act to protect American industries at the expense of colonized people. It's more about the where the ship was built and who operates them than the workers themselves.
  Yes, I am a big fan of NAFTA as well. The only parts I dislike are the parts that allow free movement of capital, disallow free movement of people, and protection of IP.
  
  Wild. And the unions who argue against free-tradeism are the bad guys?
  Labor is almost always the largest contributor to any business's costs and offshoring it is very popular with capital, so waving away the 75% American crew requirement as "not about the workers" is wrong. From a DOT study, in 2010 an American crew costs 5x what a foreign crew does.
  I live in Hawaii and while I don't like paying more to subsidize US domestic shipbuilding (if the government wants to subsidize our shipyards, they should do it themselves), but when the major voices advocating for this (in Hawaii) are Republicans, libertarians, and business-oriented Democrats like Ed Case (one can argue those aren't really three separate categories), I get wary. Because this sure looks like every other time capital wanted to stop having to pay so many expensive Americans with their benefits and labor protections when they could instead offload to foreign workers without any of that. And they pinky swear promise they'll give us cheaper stuff in return rather than just pocketing the difference.
  
  Your bad guy, good guy view of the world is myopic.
  American labor vs International labor is a false dialectic that is used to pit working class against each other by the capital. You do realize that right? How is the Jones Act about the workers as you state when it doesn't stipulate better working conditions, better pay, or ownership in the business itself? I don't think you're seriously arguing that the main reason for the price gouging that is happening in Hawaii is due to higher pay for American crew members, so I'll ignore that.
  In general, Marxists are internationalists and we don't care about protecting American workers over other workers. I would be a syndicalist if I argued for the supremacy of the union.
  
  You can talk all you want about an international brotherhood, but these are people's livelihoods you're dismissing as unimportant.
  And requiring American labor IS stipulating working conditions, because there is a very real difference between the working conditions of Americans and foreign sailors. This sounds like all you ever engage in is theory, while capital favors foreign workers because they don't have the same power (and expense) that American workers have.
  Much of the American owned fishing fleet is entirely staffed by much cheaper foreign labor unable to leave their ships because their American company can get away with not applying for work visas. They didn't just happen to end up with foreign crews effectively held captive during port calls, they do it because they're cheaper and unable to easily challenge their bosses on conditions.
  https://www.ap.org/explore/seafood-from-slaves/hawaiian-seafood-caught-foreign-crews-confined-boats.html
  This isn't a case of an open labor market where everyone is on an equal footing and Americans simply choose not to do this work. Americans simply can't work for 70 cents an hour and bosses prize workers that don't have worker protections and can't demand more.
  For many boat owners, the fishermen are a bargain: Bait and ice can cost more than crew salaries. Some of the foreign workers in Hawaii earn less than $5,000 for a full year. By contrast, the average pay for an American deckhand nationwide last year was $28,000, sometimes for jobs that last just a few months, according to government statistics. Experienced American crew members working in Alaska can make up to $80,000 a year.
  An American crew has recourse and the force of law when an employer just refuses to pay their workers.
  U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Coast Guard routinely inspect the Hawaiian boats. At times, fishermen complain they’re not getting paid and officers say they tell owners to honor the contracts. But neither agency has any authority over actual wages.
  When your labor solidarity philosophy leads you to support and defend the position of capital, a position known to depower workers and empower abuse, it feels like that's the point where you should be thinking about what the whole point is.
  
  So you are deliberately ignoring your previous point about how the main business cost and therefore the reason for the high prices in Hawaii is due to higher wages for American sailors. It's curious how you weren't actually arguing in good faith then.
  You do realize that America as a country can simply change its regulation to stipulate equal pay and treatment for foreign crew members who dock in American ports or are employed by American companies, right? You are arguing that Americans and American companies are allowed to treat foreign workers under horrible conditions, so it is labor solidarity to employ only American workers. Do you see how deranged that sounds when we get down to the meat of it?
  
  What? This response is incoherent. American crews cost more, significantly more than foreign crews, and that has a significant impact on costs. Labor is 2/3 of the operating cost for domestic shipping and 1/3 for foreign shipping. Domestic workers costing more and offshoring being cheaper aren't some new theory, they're the bedrock motivation for global free trade. Are you a real person?
  And why do you ignore that your philosophy just happens to align with capital? This just read like a neoliberal screed about supporting the global south through deregulation.
  
  Ahhh here comes the bot accusation for you liberals as always. You still haven't shown how the Jones Act actually help workers, and are arguing for the sake of arguing if you're committed to your bit of saying that the higher prices in Hawaii are due to labor costs.
  
  I see you've again ignored that your anti-protectionist political philosophy lines up exactly with the desires of capital and against that of organized labor.
  I've read this philosophy before, from proud neoliberals. That's why I question your authenticity.

201 comments