WASHINGTON, DC �The Violence Policy Center (VPC) today released Shot
Full of Holes: Deconstructing John Ashcroft's Second Amendment at
a Capitol Hill news conference. Scheduled to join the VPC were Sen. Charles
Schumer (D-NY), Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), Ranking Member of the House
Judiciary Committee, and Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), House Judiciary Committee
member and former law professor.
The new 38-page VPC study exposes Attorney General John Ashcroft's recent
letter on the Second Amendment to the National Rifle Association (NRA)
as a shoddy piece of legal and historical research that completely fails
to support its radical conclusion�that the Second Amendment protects an
expansive individual right to keep and bear arms. Distributed at the NRA's
Annual Meeting this May, the letter details a position on the Second Amendment
that directly conflicts with longstanding legal precedent, historical
research, and established U.S. Justice Department policy�but fully comports
with the NRA's distorted views. A portrait of Ashcroft is featured on
the July 2001 cover of the NRA's magazine America's 1st Freedom.
VPC Litigation Director and Legislative Counsel Mathew Nosanchuk states,
"Attorney General Ashcroft's letter to the NRA represents a 180-degree
shift in Justice Department policy regarding the Second Amendment dating
back more than 65 years. While his letter sets forth a position in conflict
with United States v. Miller�the U.S. Supreme Court's binding interpretation
of the Second Amendment�the letter never mentions the case. This is tantamount
to arguing against desegregation and ignoring Brown v. Board of Education,
or opposing a woman's right to choose and omitting any reference to
Roe v. Wade. Attorney General Ashcroft is committing a fraud upon
the American people."
Criminal defendants have already begun using the Ashcroft letter to challenge
their indictments and convictions, arguing that it shows Justice Department
support for an individual right to bear arms. Recently the defendant in
United States v. Emerson sought to file the Ashcroft letter as
supplemental authority. The VPC announced today that law professors David
Yassky of Brooklyn Law School and Carl T. Bogus of Roger Williams Law
School will file a motion to have the VPC study considered as supplemental
authority in the Emerson case. The long-awaited Emerson
decision may have a significant impact on future interpretation of the
Second Amendment and the constitutionality of federal gun laws.
