Court agrees to rule on gun case
Tuesday, November 20th, 2007 1:02 pm After a hiatus of 68 years, the Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to rule on the meaning of the Second Amendment ? the hotly contested part of the Constitution that guarantees ?a right to keep and bear arms.? Not since 1939 has the Court heard a case directly testing the Amendment?s scope ? and there is a debate about whether it actually decided anything in that earlier ruling. In a sense, the Court may well be writing on a clean slate if it, in the end, decides the ultimate question: does the Second Amendment guarantee an individual right to have a gun for private use, or does it only guarantee a collective right to have guns in an organized military force such as a state National Guard unit?
The city of Washington?s appeal (District of Columbia v. Heller, 07-290) is expected to be heard in March ? slightly more than a year after the D.C. Circuit Court ruled that the right is a personal one, at least to have a gun for self-defense in one?s own home.
The Justices chose to write out for themselves the question(s) they will undertake to answer. Both sides had urged the Court to hear the city?s case, but they had disagreed over how to frame the Second Amendment issue.
Here is the way the Court phrased the granted issue:
?Whether the following provisions ? D.C. Code secs. 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??
What this means is that the High Court will decide if the 2nd Amendment applies to you and I, or just the Government. The District of Columbia tried hard to make the ruling apply to only them, but the Court will rule on the issue for the entire nation. A win will ensure the continuance of the hobby, a loss means we all better start buying Roman gear.
There is nothing we can do now but wait, but this effects most of us and I think informing the public of something this major is important. You won't see this on the news tonight............
Robb