They cannot license our Constitutional rights

[fatratcat]

Originally Posted by philibusters

In reality, the Supreme Court has always balanced Constitutional rights against the government's legitimate interest. Thus under traditional constitutional jurisprudence there is nothing unprecedented about gun licenses.

If you want to get technical you register to vote with the state, get your drivers license from the state, and get your marriage license from the state. You usually get your permits to protest from the state (unless the protest is on federal land in which case you might have to get permits from the state and federal government).

Going back to the founding fathers the bill of rights was designed to limit the federal government not really the state governments. The fourteenth amendment 75 years later after the Civil War was designed to limit state powers to some degree, but I think its arguably that there was always the intention that the state governments would continue to do the things mentioned above.

The Supreme Court doesn't always make the distinction but it should matter who is doing the licensing, the federal gov't or state.

Wow! A very cogent statement!