Supreme Court Backs Individual Gun Rights
Today's decision marks the first time in its history that the Supreme Court has clearly established that the Second Amendment guarantees the right of gun ownership to individual citizens, rather than granting the states a "collective" right to form armed militias.
The Second Amendment Reads: A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.
In the Court's majority opinion, Justice Antonin Scalia wrote, "It was plainly the understanding in the post-Civil War Congress that the Second Amendment protected an individual right to use arms for self-defense."
The D.C. law overturned today prohibited the private ownership of handguns by any District resident who did not own one prior to the law’s enactment in 1976. Considered one of the strictest gun control laws in the nation, it also required all legally owned handguns to be stored unloaded and either disassembled or fitted with trigger locks.
Analysis:
District of Columbia v. Heller (Civil Liberties)
Annie Get Your Gun (Women's Issues)
Also See:
High Court Opts Out of Gun Rights Debate (2002)
Does the Second Amendment Protect the Right to Bear Arms?
The Brady Handgun Control Act
Comments
Are there figures for what the effect of the DC law was? Did the number of deaths and injuries from guns go down after the law was enacted?
Regardless, I can’t remember the last time a simple headline made me feel so sick first thing in the morning.
Marcia
About.com Guide to Bipolar Disorder
Marcia — The DC handgun law had little if any effect on the violent crime rate in the district. During the ban, more than 8,400 people were murdered in the district, many killed by handguns. Nearly 80 percent of the 181 murders in 2007 were committed with guns. D.C.’s homicide rate actually peaked in 1991, when 479 people were murdered.
Hi Marcia — The ban had little, if any effect on crime in the district. During the ban, more than 8,400 people were murdered in the district, many killed by handguns. Nearly 80 percent of the 181 murders in 2007 were committed with guns. Homicides in the district actually peaking in 1991, when 479 people were murdered.
Robert
Good god - glad I don’t live there!
Thanks, Robert.
Marcia
Yes,God bless The Supreme Court.I don’t even own
a gun. And never have. But I am tired of big
business and politicians manipulating our Amendments for their own needs.