Suddenly, I’m hearing a bunch of auctioneers talking about the 1803 Supreme Court case: Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. (1 Cranch) 137 (1803). Apparently since the Supreme Court of the United States is the final arbiter of federal law in the United States, our right to “keep and bear” firearms cannot be infringed.
I would ask this question … if the Supreme Court can be the final arbiter of federal law in the United States, can cases such as United States v. Miller, 307 U.S. 174 (1939) (Miller) or District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S. 570 (2008) (Heller) infringe upon your right to keep and bear?
We wrote about firearm laws here in the United States and the fact they are (and have been for over 80 years) infringed upon in many ways: https://mikebrandlyauctioneer.wordpress.com/2018/03/22/firearms-guaranteed-and-not-infringed/.
There too has been a sudden interest in Second Amendment sanctuary rulings suggesting a local town, village, township, city or the like could void firearm restrictions. We noted that’s not the case here: https://mikebrandlyauctioneer.wordpress.com/2019/12/26/auctioneers-and-second-amendment-sanctuary-regulations/.
There are federal laws that restrict some people from owning (possessing) a firearm. Some laws restrict the sale of firearms without the use of a Federal Firearms Licensee. These laws exist largely because they don’t create an “undue burden” on the right to keep and bear. This is what the Supreme Court has held.
In our widely (but apparently not widely enough) treatise on firearm laws for auctioneers, we noted there are even more laws for auctioneers selling firearms than for the general public: https://mikebrandlyauctioneer.wordpress.com/2019/11/08/auctioneers-firearms-and-there-must-be-a-way/.
If you are an auctioneer contracting to sell others’ firearms at auction, you need to be very careful. Penalties for illegal activity can be as much as $500,000 in fines and 10 years in prison. Further, it’s not difficult nor costly to sell firearms legally.
Mike Brandly, Auctioneer, CAI, CAS, AARE has been an auctioneer and certified appraiser for over 30 years. His company’s auctions are located at: Mike Brandly, Auctioneer, RES Auction Services and Goodwill Columbus Car Auction. He serves as Distinguished Faculty at Hondros College, Executive Director of The Ohio Auction School, an Instructor at the National Auctioneers Association’s Designation Academy and America’s Auction Academy. He is faculty at the Certified Auctioneers Institute held at Indiana University and is approved by the The Supreme Court of Ohio for attorney education.
Comments