Second Amendment Violation Amnesty Act of 2008

I am what some undoubtedly consider a gun rights "extremist" (or would be, were I significant enough to be worthy of notice). That's an appellation that doesn't particularly disturb me, but even so, I do not wish to be seen as one with whom it is impossible to reason. In that spirit, I propose throwing a bone to the other side ("the other side" being the citizen disarmament advocates).

What I have in mind is federal legislation that would grant amnesty to officials (elected or not, whether in the legislative, executive, or judicial branch) and agents of government (at any level) from prosecution under Title 18, U.S.C., Section 242,"Deprivation of Rights Under Color of Law," for violation of American citizens' Second Amendment rights. Section 242 reads, in part:

This statute makes it a crime for any person acting under color of law, statute, ordinance, regulation, or custom to willfully deprive or cause to be deprived from any person those rights, privileges, or immunities secured or protected by the Constitution and laws of the U.S.

The imposition and enforcement of laws that violate Second Amendment rights would clearly fall under the purview of this statute--and the penalties are not insignificant.

Punishment varies from a fine or imprisonment of up to one year, or both, and if bodily injury results or if such acts include the use, attempted use, or threatened use of a dangerous weapon, explosives, or fire shall be fined or imprisoned up to ten years or both, and if death results, or if such acts include kidnapping or an attempt to kidnap, aggravated sexual abuse or an attempt to commit aggravated sexual abuse, or an attempt to kill, shall be fined under this title, or imprisoned for any term of years or for life, or both, or may be sentenced to death.

With all the deaths that have resulted from violence inflicted on citizens placed under a condition of government mandated defenselessness (unconstitutionally mandated defenselessness), such an amnesty should be seen by a great many officials as quite a boon indeed (who could have predicted I would try to save Mayor Daley's life?).

An undeserved boon, I acknowledge, but such is the nature of politics--besides, perhaps it is fear of facing the music that forces these people to cling so desperately to the ridiculous fiction that their efforts to trample a right of the people, a right that shall not be infringed, are not actually a violation of the Second Amendment. Perhaps that fear is what drives the Department of "Justice" (ha!) to claim that the Supreme Court should not overturn Washington D.C.'s draconian gun laws on Second Amendment grounds. Perhaps giving them an out is the way to break the impasse. After all, although most of the folks who read this blog (not that you're out there in overwhelming numbers) know the true purpose of the Second Amendment, I would imagine that the vast majority fervently hope it never comes to that.

That is why I propose the "Second Amendment Violation Amnesty Act of 2008." It's quite beyond me to express it in the convoluted (and inevitably verbose, even by my standards) language of lawyers, but the gist of a summary would be something like this:

Title: A bill to extend amnesty to officials and agents of government who, prior to the effective date of this code, participated in the imposition or enforcement of laws that violated the Constitutionally guaranteed fundamental human right of the individual to keep and bear arms, and to make that amnesty conditional on the violator's immediate and permanent departure from government service.

For violations after the effective date, of course, all bets would be off.