Second Amendment & the Right to Keep and Bear Arms
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.
The Second Amendment protects the right of the people to keep and bear arms for defense of life and liberty.
In U.S. v. Cruikshank (1876), Presser v. Illinois (1886), Miller v. Texas (1894) and U.S. v. Miller (1939), the Supreme Court recognized that the amendment protects an individual right. It has never taken a different view. However, in Salina v. Blaksley (1905), the Kansas Supreme Court invented the idea that the amendment instead protected a “right” of a person to keep and bear arms only while serving in a state militia, and in U.S. v. Tot (1942), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit advanced the idea that the amendment protects the “right” of a state to have a militia.
In District of Columbia v. Heller (2008), the Supreme Court heard its first case specifically centered on whether the amendment protects an individual right to arms. Gun control supporters advanced essentially the "Salina" argument, but the Court, consistent with its previous rulings in Second Amendment-related cases, ruled that the amendment protects an individual right to keep arms and to bear arms "in case of confrontation," without regard to a person’s relationship to a militia.
In McDonald v. Chicago (2010), the court extended the Second Amendment's protection nationwide.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
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Monday, June 23, 2008
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Thursday, May 29, 2008
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Thursday, May 29, 2008
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Friday, May 16, 2008
The U.S. Supreme Court heard District of Columbia v. Heller, a monumental Second Amendment case that will likely ...
Friday, May 16, 2008
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Thursday, April 3, 2008
As the Supreme Court deliberates whether or not the District of Columbia’s 30-year-old gun ban is unconstitutional under ...
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Dave Kopel drills down into the filings for D.C.`s Supreme Court gun-ban case to answer the question: What ...
Friday, February 22, 2008
As the Supreme Court prepares to hear the case of District of Columbia v. Heller, involving the District’s ...