🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <daib9e$re4$3@blue.rahul.net>,
 Merlin Dorfman <dorfman@green.rahul.net> wrote:

> In alt.tv.the-west-wing David M. Nieporent <nieporen@alumni.princeton.edu> 
> wrote:
> > Merlin Dorfman wrote:
> >> In ca.general Frank White <fwhite*NOSPAM*@colfax.com> wrote:
> 
> ...
> >>      You are exactly "right," pardon the pun.  This court has moved
> >> the interpretation of the law far to the right, from things like
> >> denying states the right to keep guns off school campuses to
> >> reversing progress on civil rights, and many other areas.
> 
> > You're mistaken.  None of that happened.  The Supreme Court made *no* 
> > ruling on what states can do about guns on school campuses.  The Supreme Court 
> > ruled that the *federal* government can't legislate about local issues such 
> > as that.  (And even that's an exaggeration; all they actually said was that 
> > Congress can't do so except as part of a comprehensive regulatory scheme.)
> 
>  My mistake; I meant to say denying the Federal government the
> right to regulate guns on school campuses.

It's hard to deny a right that doesn't exist. What gives you the idea 
that the federal government ever had such a "right" in the first place?

Governments don't have rights. They have powers. Only individual people 
have rights.

And in this case, the 10th Amendment indicates that the federal 
government doesn't even have the power to regulate guns on school 
campuses. That power is clearly reserved to the states, per the 
Constitution.

I don't understand this driving need some people have for everything to 
be regulated on the federal level. The states do just fine on their own. 
It's not like there are some rogue state governments out there who are 
making schools free-fire zones.

A few weeks ago, a child died on an amusement park ride at Disney's 
Epcot Center. The very next day, we had some congressman railing about 
how "this tragedy underscores the need for federal regulation of 
amusement parks".

Huh?

One kid has an accident and that translates to the need for another 
massive federal bureaucracy? Leaving aside the fact that the 
Constitution doesn't grant Congress the power to regulate theme parks, 
why is it necessary for the federal government to take this away from 
the states? All 50 states have regulations for everything from the tiny 
traveling carnival to the massive Six Flags-style theme parks. How does 
one kid's death invalidate all that?