The Binghamton [New York] Press carried this article on :
Italians Refuse To Pay Their Tax
Deprived of Shotguns, They Attempt Retaliation
Susquehanna, Pa., . — Word comes from Lanesboro that the foreigners of that village are refusing to pay their taxes, claiming that they do not have to pay any taxes when they are not allowed to have in their possession a shotgun like the Americans. A recent act of the Legislature forbids any unnaturalized citizen having in his possession an shotgun and recently a number of foreigners at Lanesboro were arrested on the charge of violating this law by the State Constabulary stationed at Susquehanna. Each was fined $25 and costs.
It is said that they now refuse to pay any taxes. The law states that if a taxpayer refuses to settle he can be arrested and sentenced to jail if he has no property to attach.
The phrase “unnaturalized citizen” makes me wonder whether “unnaturalized” is being used in a formal, legal sense or in an informal one, more like “unacculturated.” It wasn’t until that the U.S. Supreme Court clarified that in the part of the Bill of Rights that says “the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed,” “the people” includes both citizens and legal aliens. But also in the Court hadn’t even indicated that the Second Amendment applied to laws passed by State legislatures (the law in question here was a Pennsylvania state law) rather than by the federal Congress.
