Important Supreme Court Cases:
The appellate court opinion in Parker
v. District of Columbia, 478 F.3d 370 (D.C. Cir.
2007), was the decision reviewed by the Supreme Court in District
of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S. 570 (2008), where
the Supreme Court held that a D.C. gun ban was unconstitutional,
finding that the Second Amendment applied in the District of
Columbia. Soon after the decision in Heller, a similar
challenge was mounted in Chicago; see NRA,
Inc. v. Chicago, 567 F.3d 856 (7th Cir. 2009). In McDonald
v. Chicago, 561 U.S. 742 (2010), the Court held that
this amendment applied to the States. In Caetano
v. Massachusetts, 577
U.S. ___, 136 S. Ct. 1027 (2016), the Court held that a Massachusetts ban
on stun guns abridged its decisions in Heller and McDonald.
Please read
Alito's concurring opinion.
Important Federal Appellate Court Cases:
The Fifth Circuit, in United
States v. Emerson, 270 F.3d 203 (5th Cir.
2001), has a good analysis of the meaning and scope of this
amendment. It held, after historical analysis, "We reject
the collective rights and sophisticated collective rights
models for interpreting the Second Amendment. We hold,
consistent with Miller, that it protects the right of
individuals, including those not then actually a member of any
militia or engaged in active military service or training, to
privately possess and bear their own firearms, such as the
pistol involved here, that are suitable as personal,
individual weapons and are not of the general kind or type
excluded by Miller."
A municipal ordinance that was
essentially a ban on "open carry" in D.C. was held
unconstitutional in Wrenn
v. District of Columbia, 864 F.3d 650 (D.C. Cir.
2017). Here,
you may acquire the docket sheet for this case, along with
all pleadings.
In 2013, the Maryland legislature enacted a ban on
semiautomatic, military style guns, resulting in a civil
case being filed to challenge its constitutionality.
That federal court found the ban constitutional in Kolbe
v. O'Malley, 42 F.Supp.3d 768 (D. Md. 2014).
But on appeal, the Fourth Circuit panel found the ban
unconstitutional in Kolbe
v. Hogan, 813 F.3d 160 (4th Cir. 2016), and
Maryland petitioned for rehearing. In 2017, in Kolbe
v. Hogan, 849 F.3d 114 (4th Cir. 2017), that
full court reversed the panel and found this ban
constitutional. The Fourth Circuit's docket sheet for
that appeal is available here.
But, aliens have
no constitutional rights protected by the Second Amendment.
See United
States v. Portillo-Munoz, 643 F.3d 437, 442 (5th
Cir. 2011)(“Whatever else the term means or includes, the
phrase ‘the people’ in the Second Amendment of the
Constitution does not include aliens illegally in the United
States...”); United
States v. Flores, 663 F.3d 1022, 1023 (8th Cir.
2011)(court agreed “with the Fifth Circuit that the
protections of the Second Amendment do not extend to aliens
illegally present in this country...”); United
States v. Huitron-Guizar, 678 F.3d 1164, 1169–70
(10th Cir. 2012); and United
States v. Carpio-Leon, 701 F.3d 974, 979 (4th
Cir. 2012)(“illegal
aliens do not belong to the class of law-abiding members of
the political community to whom the Second Amendment gives
protection.”). However, the Seventh Circuit has held
otherwise. See United States v.
Meza-Rodriguez, 798 F.3d 664 (7th Cir. 2015)(aliens have
Second
Amendment rights).
Articles:
In 2004, the Depart of Justice published a memorandum opinion, Whether
the Second Amendment Secures an Individual Right, which is
a great read.
The UN has issued Document
7277 promoting disarmament.
This interesting policy report, Cato Report, shows that gun control is bad. Read this report.
Organizations:
If you are thinking about joining an organization, Larry Pratt’s
Gun Owners of America, is in
my opinion, the best. I am a member.
The Second Amendment Foundation:
Great folks from Missoula.
Jews for the Preservation of Firearms
Ownership publishes lots of great
articles.
For the ladies (and their pink handguns), the Second Amendment Sisters
is for them.