Ban on Guns? SCOTUS says…not so much

By CJP | June 26, 2008

  The Supreme Court today ruled that the 32-year-old ban on hand guns in Washington, D.C. is unconstitutional.   Although the decision in the case, called District of Columbia v. Heller, was 5 to 4, judicial experts have described the decision as generally  moderate.

The decision says that the Second Amendment applies to individuals, not just militias; that it’s an individual’s right to keep a gun for self-defense, but that the Second Amendment does not apply to all firearms (so it’s not your right to keep a surface to air missile in the closet.)  Here are a few key quotes from Justice Scalia’s opinion for the majority:

“We start therefore with a strong presumption that the Second Amendment right is exercised individually and belongs to all Americans.”

“Putting all of these textual elements together, we find that they guarantee the individual right to possess and carry weapons in case of confrontation.”

“Thus, we do not read the Second Amendment to protect the right of citizens to carry arms for any sort of confrontation, just as we do not read the First Amendment to protect the right of citizens to speak for any purpous.”

For everything you ever wanted to know about the decision and the Supreme Court, check out SCOTUSblog, and for CJP’s original primer on the Second Amendment, click HERE.

Topics: Amendment-a-Day

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