By Theresa Inacker
Why does it seem that liberal extremists are pursuing new infringements on gun rights seemingly unchecked? Why do we have an escalated situation in Virginia where liberal politicians seek to further infringe the Second Amendment rights of its citizens, threatening imprisonment and even violence against Constitutional gun owners who have committed no crimes?
This is due to a failure of our system of checks and balances. Due to a failure of the courts to deal with a barrage of important Second Amendment cases over the last ten years, we are perilously off balance.
In 2008, we had the epic Heller decision, and the subsequent McDonald decision in 2010, which applied Heller to the states. In the more than 10 years since those decisions were handed down, we have seen relentless encroachments on Second Amendment rights by extreme anti-rights fanatics.
When will it ever end? When will the Supreme Court make it end?
The response by gun rights supporters to these continued, ongoing infringements has been appropriate: seek redress using the three branches of government. Specifically, file lawsuit after lawsuit begging the Judiciary to enforce Heller’s holdings on concepts like individual rights and common-use.
Unfortunately, the Judiciary has repeatedly ignored these petitions for redress—a complete and dangerous failure to enforce the provisions enumerated in the Heller decision. The results have been a painful, unconstitutional existence for those of us in states like New Jersey and, most recently, it has brought Virginia to the edge of chaos.
This judicial hibernation, combined with the limitless funding of special interest groups and individuals like gun control sugar daddy Michael Bloomberg’s funding of Moms Demand Action and Everytown, has resulted in a highly explosive situation.
Since 2014, the Supreme Court of the United States has declined the opportunity to grant several petitions for certiorari.
In 2014, the Court denied the petition in a New Jersey case asking the critical question of whether or not the Second Amendment applies outside the home. See Drake v. Filko. In 2017, the petition for cert was denied in Peruta v. San Diego.
These denials have resulted in terrible consequences. They have provided liberal, anti-gun rights extremists an unfettered highway to infringement.
On the micro level, in the repeated failure to act swiftly in upholding the Second Amendment, the Supreme Court itself has placed citizens like New Jerseyians (who are automatically denied a right to carry) in danger of criminal activity and terror, such as we saw in the recent Texas church shooting.
The Court’s failure to act has also placed us in danger on the macro level, such as in Virginia where politicians have threatened to use the National Guard against the state’s citizens and to jail those who have committed no crimes.
The Court must act soon. It is abundantly clear, despite a dearth of reporting by the mainstream media, that complete civilian disarmament is the end goal. Americans will not allow them to succeed.
New Jersey has several cases in the pipeline in which we are seeking to enforce the provisions outlined in the Heller case. There is currently the magazine ban case, ANJRPC v. Grewal, where obvious, patent issues about common use are at the forefront. That case is currently making its way from the 3rd Circuit.
Additionally there are at least four cases pending consideration by the Supreme Court involving the question of whether or not the Second Amendment applies outside the home. Four. A log-jam in you will
They are: Cheeseman v. Polillo, Rogers v Grewal, Ciolek v. New Jersey, and Gould v. Morgan.
And let us not forget New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. City of New York, a case the Court did agree to hear and in which oral arguments have already been heard.
Each and every one of these cases shows how reasonable constitutional gun owners have been in utilizing the judiciary to redress our grievances. It is now incumbent on the Court to wake from its slumber.
So long as the Court fails to act in any of these cases, extremists will remain unchecked, continuing to infringe the Second Amendment rights of lawful gun owners. Gun control proponents are laser-focused on constitutional gun owners and will pursue their civilian disarmament agenda until we are all plunged into chaos.
So long as those extremists go unchecked, we will be off balance. The only way to avert this powder keg situation is for the Supreme Court to finally act and to rule — unequivocally — in favor of Second Amendment proponents.
This is not just rhetoric. There can be no compromises. This right is not negotiable.
Theresa Inacker is an attorney, a mom, a pheasant hunter, an AR-15 sporting rifle owner, a former editor of the Seton Hall Constitutional Law Journal and has been admitted to the US Supreme Court Bar. She is Communications Director for the Coalition of New Jersey Firearm Owners and the New Jersey ambassador for the DC Project.