Archive for the ‘second amendment’ tag
Happy Fourth
As if you didn’t already know, on June 26, 2008, the Supreme Court affirmed the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in Parker v. District of Columbia, 478 F.3d 370 (D.C. Cir. 2007).[1] The Court of Appeals had struck down provisions of the Firearms Control Regulations Act of 1975 as unconstitutional, and determined that handguns are “Arms” that may not be banned by the District of Columbia (Washington, D.C.), also striking down the portion of the law that requires all firearms including rifles and shotguns be kept “unloaded and disassembled or bound by a trigger lock.” (hat tip Wikipedia). This decision I think deserves some extra special attention this July 4th. Have a safe and enjoyable weekend.
Second Amendment News
As Michelle Malkin pointed out back in March, SCOTUS has heard one of the largest cases in terms of precendent that they have looked at in a long time. To put a little backstory on the case, lets quote a bit from Wikipedia:
District of Columbia v. Heller, No. 07-290, is a case pending before the Supreme Court of the United States. It is an appeal from Parker v. District of Columbia, 478 F.3d 370 (D.C. Cir. 2007), a decision in which the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit became the first federal appeals court in the United States to rule that a firearm ban was an unconstitutional infringement of the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution, and the second to expressly interpret the Second Amendment as protecting an individual right to possess firearms for private use.
The Supreme Court however has limited somewhat the scope of the case to the following:
The petition for a writ of certiorari is granted limited to the following question: Whether the following provisions, D.C. Code §§ 7-2502.02(a)(4), 22-4504(a), and 7-2507.02, violate the Second Amendment rights of individuals who are not affiliated with any state-regulated militia, but who wish to keep handguns and other firearms for private use in their homes?
While this decision will only directly affect the DC case, SCOTUS’ decision here will set a very strong precedent for other possible cases to follow. For the full backstory of the case, I’d suggest reading the Wikipedia article.