Reply #13: [i]Miller[/i] is indeed deficient... [View All]

[S_B_Jackson]

but Miller did not die in jail, nor did his lawyer, "fail to show up"...

Miller and Layton were released from custody when Judge Heartsill Ragon upheld a pre-trial demurrer from the defense that the NFA violated their second amendment rights. The US goverment appealed the decision to the USSC...Miller and Layton were no longer represented...in 1939, the USSC reviewing only the briefs filed by the Attorney' General's office and reviewing the meager transcript record of Judge Ragon's court issued the a simple reverse and remand, and ordering the court to conduct a trial before striking down an act of Congress on constitutional grounds.

No retrial was ever conducted, however, as Jack Miller while free had been, ironically, shot and killed. And Layton, entered into a plea agreement for a 5 year probated sentence from which he was released in 1944.

I do agree with you that Miller is a mighty weak hook for gun control advocates to hang their hat, so to speak. Much of the text which anti-gun activists are so enamoured of is in fact an in dicta list of many issues of fact which should be determined in an adversarial proceeding, both sides laying out arguments and presenting evidence, in order that the court could make an informed decision. When it says, "Certainly it is not within judicial notice that this weapon is any part of the ordinary military equipment or that its use could contribute to the common defense." They were absolutely correct....the court couldn't "know because no evidence had been presented as yet!