Posted October 28, 2015 5:34 pm by Comments

By Bob Owens

Here’s an interesting First Amendment case with Second Amendment ramifications:

An Amish resident of central Pennsylvania is challenging the photo identification requirement to purchase a firearm, saying his religious beliefs prevent him from being photographed.

PennLive.com reports that Andrew Hertzler argues in a suit filed Friday in U.S. Middle District Court that the requirement violates his religious freedom and his constitutional right to possess a firearm.

Hertzler said his beliefs as a member of an Amish community in Lancaster County bar photographs being taken of him, but he was prohibited from buying a gun in June for self-defense purposes.

The lawsuit said Hertzler could get a federal firearms license to deal in guns without a photograph but has no desire to do that. He contends that the state’s non-photo ID along with other documentation should be sufficient.

Requiring Hertzler to get a gun dealer’s license as a workaround to obtain a firearm is absurd, and the government should make reasonable accommodation for Hertzler and other Amish gun purchasers who have well-known Second Commandment (“thou shall make no graven image”) prohibitions against appearing in photographs.

The Amish avoid most 20th century technologies as being incompatible with an austere lifestyle which …Read the Rest

Source:: Bearing Arms

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