Project to Repeal Gun Free School Zones and Bear Arms and Armor

I would like to start a project with the intent of crafting a strong case to either strictly limit or repeal the GFSZA and to direct Congress that they lack Constitutional authority to place blatant prohibitions against “civilians” from possessing firearms, ammunition, or ballistic armor.

To first provide a bit of background, initially, the GFSZA was initially overturned by United States v. Lopez, 514 U.S. 549 (1995), only to reemerge in 1997 due to the sweet (yet ill-conceived) word play afforded by the Commerce Clause. Its key players include Joseph Biden and Janet Reno. Dr. Ron Paul made an attempt within his H. R. 2613 (2011) to repeal the Act, which was left to die, unfortunately.

The Court in Lopez made it abundantly clear that “The Act neither regulates a commercial activity nor contains a requirement that the possession be connected in any way to interstate commerce.” Common sense should dictate that an individual carrying a prior purchased, transported, transferred, or borrowed firearm while out and about within a sovereign state has nothing whatsoever to do with the original context of the Commerce Clause.

The Commerce Clause entails only federal regulation over the purchasing, selling, trading, transporting and related mechanisms of articles between two or more states or nations. Under the Commerce Clause, Congress may not, for example, legislate that an individual within a sovereign state may only use a magazines of certain capacity; keep their firearms disassembled and locked away; keep ammunition stored separately from firearms; only carry their firearm within their primary residence; purchase a firearm only after obtaining a state issued license; or for that matter that an individual must eat two cobs of buttered corn imported from Iowa each Tuesday along with two dashes of Morton salt or face a fine; attend Sunday mass or face criminal prosecution; donate annually to Toys for Tots or face conscription; that one must drive their import vehicle no faster than 50MPH on any public roadway, or that all passengers of imported vehicles must wear seatbelts, or that drivers cannot be intoxicated, or that all such vehicles be kept up on federally imposed smog requirements and lawfully licensed and registered, or that all such automobiles be washed, waxed, and vacuumed weekly.

* Further noting that it is absolutely outside of the federal government’s realm of legal concern to determine how individual states should collectively define, charge, and prosecute felonious acts, including criminals with firearms, munitions, or armor (realizing clear exceptions for when civil rights violations are involved, e.g., a state refuses to provide due process or legal resources to blacks or to prosecute a law enforcement officer suspected of raping or murdering while on duty, etc.)


Federal statutes in play:

• National Firearms Act of 1934 (Concerns certain firearms taxation and clarifies interstate commerce)
• Federal Firearms Act of 1938 (Repealed and reenacted within the succeeding Act)
• Gun Control Act of 1968 (Places general restrictions or criminality on interstate firearms)
• Firearm Owners Protection Act of 1986 (Amended certain aspects of the preceding Act, supposedly to the benefit of firearm owners)
• Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990 (Makes general possession of interstate firearms around school grounds criminal)
• Law Enforcement Officers Safety Act of 2004 (Provides law enforcement personnel, including retired and federal personnel with certain exemptions under federal firearms control laws)