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The U.S. Supreme Court announced on Wednesday that it plans to hear the next major gun rights case, a move that will decide whether the Second Amendment can invalidate state laws and municipal ordinances. A 5-4 Supreme Court decision last year did say that the U.S. Constitution protects an individual right to own a handgun. But the majority opinion never concluded that the Second Amendment applied to states; it didn't say what kind of laws beyond a flat ban are acceptable or unacceptable; it didn't even say what kind of standards lower courts should apply when evaluating anti-gun laws. One...

This week on Uncommon Knowledge, the man who saved the Second Amendment. In 2007, Judge Laurence Silberman, senior judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, wrote a decision overturning the District of Columbia’s ban on handguns. The following year, the Supreme Court agreed with him.

When the Supreme Court struck down Washington, D.C.’s city-wide gun ban as unconstitutional in the D.C. v. Heller decision of June 2008, it seemed axiomatic that similar gun bans around the country would crumble under the weight of unconstitutionality as well. However, more than a year after the Heller decision, the D.C. city council is making it as difficult as possible to get a gun permit in the nation’s capital, Chicago’s Mayor Daley is fighting to keep his city’s total handgun ban in place, and other mayors, like Seattle’s Greg Nickels, threaten to institute gun bans every time a newsworthy...

Last February I explained how, counter intuitively, the DC City Council's 2008 action to repeal the DC Police Chief's power to issue handgun carry permits made it possible for DC residents to apply by mail for handgun carry permits from Pennsylvania Sherrifs. Such applications can be made by filling out a simple form, no fingerprints, social security numbers, or training required. And these permits are accepted by many states too. . . . So how can DC residents legally acquire guns without jumping through all the hoops erected by the DC City Council? It turns out it's pretty simple -...

Congressman Heller sent this letter to President Obama on September 8, 2009 offering options to help bridge the gap between Republicans and Democrats on health care reform: September 8, 2009 The Honorable Barack Obama President of the United States The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Washington, D.C., 20006 Dear Mr. President: Yesterday, you said those critical of your healthcare plan were "trying to scare the American people and preserve the status quo." You rhetorically asked critics "what's your answer? What's your solution?" and asserted that "the truth is, they don't have one. It's do nothing." (Speech before the AFL-CIO, Cincinnati,...

The city of Washington, D.C. is mounting an aggressive legal defense of its ban on carrying handguns, calling it "squarely in the mainstream and eminently reasonable." In a 37-page legal brief filed this week, the District of Columbia says that refusing to grant licenses to its residents to carry handguns in public complies with the Second Amendment. The regulations "serve important goals of public safety, especially here, in the nation's capital," the brief says. If this lawsuit sounds a little familiar, you're right. It was in June 2008 that the U.S. Supreme Court shot down a city ordinance effectively preventing...

Jim Hryekewicz, in a Sept. 7, column in the Star-Telegram, recounts why the city of Chicago could be the next significant Second Amendment battleground. “Otis McDonald is a great American,” he writes. “In the 1960s, he wore an Army uniform and served with distinction. He then moved home to Chicago were he began a family. Meanwhile, he busied himself during the days with work at his local union. Eventually, he led the effort to integrate his union and ended up as president of the union. “In recent years, McDonald looked around Chicago and decided that he could do something about...

·11250 Waples Mill Road ·   Fairfax, Virginia 22030    ·800-392-8683   New York: Sportsmen’s Association for Firearms Education Inc. (S.A.F.E.) 2009 Firearm Civil Rights Conference   Thursday, September 03, 2009   Please join the Sportsmen’s Association for Firearms Education Inc. (S.A.F.E.) for its 2009 Firearm Civil Rights Conference. Sunday, September 13, 2009, 1:00 P.M. to 4:00 P.M. (doors open at 12:00 noon) Sheraton Long Island Hotel110 Vanderbilt Motor ParkwaySmithtown, NY (631) 231-1100(on Motor Parkway on the North side of LIE between exits 53 & 55)Special guests include Wayne LaPierre, NRA Executive Vice President; Ron Schmeits, NRA President; Chris Cox, Executive Director of the...

The Supreme Court, in District of Columbia v. Heller, declared that Washington’s 32-year ban on all functional firearms violated the Second Amendment. Justice Antonin Scalia’s majority opinion, however, applied only to possession of guns in the home. The court did not address, and was not asked to address, firearms carried outside the home. That’s the issue posed in a new lawsuit against the District by Tom Palmer (disclosure: my colleague at the Cato Institute) and four other plaintiffs — represented by Alan Gura, the lawyer who successfully argued Heller before the court. After Heller, the District relaxed its ban on...

City council members are expected to consider a proposed assault weapons ban today during a special session on the G-20 Summit As the G-20 Summit nears, Pittsburgh City Council is considering the possibility of instituting an assault weapons ban during the high-profile event. According to our news partners at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, city officials are talking about reviving an old law that would ban those types of weapons. If approved, the ban would likely be in effect until after the G-20 Summit ends. City council members are expected to consider the assault weapons ban today along with many other pieces...

In a veiled attempt to change the country's talking points, the White House decided to announce that a special prosecutor would be named to investigate a dozen CIA interrogations during the Bush administration. Political pundits say this is just another ploy to change the topic from health care... Many questions remain direct and focused on health care issues. A biggie is, "Will the health care reform bill include coverage for those in this country illegally? The president continues to say absolutely not. However, there have been many attempts to add safety measures to ensure illegal aliens do not receive care...

Last year's U.S. Supreme Court ruling on the Second Amendment did not, contrary to what you may have heard at the time, resolve very much. Unanswered are questions about carrying firearms in public, gun sales on government property, firearm registration, guns in government housing, handgun restrictions that aren't exactly the same as the District of Columbia's, zoning and gun stores, and so on. And so far, at least, lower courts have been overwhelmingly hostile to gun owners' rights. The latest example is a decision late Thursday by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, which said that a...

One question left unanswered by the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark Second Amendment ruling last year is this: When do law-abiding Americans have the right to carry firearms in public for self-defense? In a lawsuit filed against the city of Washington, D.C. on Thursday, the Second Amendment Foundation aims to find out. The plaintiffs are four gun owners who were denied licenses to carry firearms in public on their person, which nearly all states permit. All U.S. states except Illinois and Wisconsin grant licenses for concealed carry, and 36 states require local police to issue the licenses unless there's a valid...

BELLEVUE, Wash. - (Business Wire) The Second Amendment Foundation today filed a lawsuit on behalf of three residents of the District of Columbia and a Florida resident, seeking to compel the city to issue carry permits to law-abiding citizens. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court on behalf of Tom Palmer, George Lyon and Amy McVey, all District residents, and Edward Raymond, a New Hampshire resident. SAF and the individual plaintiffs are being represented by attorney Alan Gura, who successfully argued the landmark District of Columbia v. Heller case in 2008 that overturned the District’s handgun ban on the...

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals just agreed to host another shootout over gun rights. The court decided Wednesday to review en banc a panel ruling that had significantly broadened Second Amendment protections by applying them to state and local governments. This holding, arrived at by Judge Diarmuid O'Scannlain, is at odds with other rulings from around the country -- including one penned by 2nd Circuit Judge Sonia Sotomayor. The 9th Circuit panel had still upheld an Alameda County, Calif., ordinance that forbids a gun show at a public fairground. Thus neither side had asked for en banc review....

Health care has been at the top of Obama's agenda. The big question is, will illegal immigrants be covered by this plan? A recent Rasmussen poll stated that 80% of Americans would be opposed to extending benefits to illegals. The Center for Immigration Studies estimates that there are as many as 15 million uninsured illegals and their children here. Obama recently gave an interview to Katie Couric in which he said, "First of all, I'd like to create a situation where we're dealing with illegal immigration, so that we don't have illegal immigrants. And I want a comprehensive immigration plan...

Washington, DC - -(AmmoLand.com)- In Congressional testimony, Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayer claimed she couldn’t think of a self-defense case having come before the Supreme Court, adding, “I could be wrong, but I can’t think of one.” Independent research shows that fourteen separate Supreme Court cases, from 1895 to 1985, addressed every basic aspect of personal self defense. All of them held that self defense is a valid, justifiable and long-standing tenet of American law. The Bloomfield Press book “Supreme Court Gun Cases” (Kopel, Halbrook, Korwin), released in 2003 and in the Supreme Court’s library, covers the 92 High Court...

Other than declaring war, neither house of Congress has a more solemn responsibility than the Senate's role in confirming justices to the U.S. Supreme Court. As the Senate considers the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor, Americans have been watching to see whether this nominee - if confirmed - would respect the Second Amendment or side with those who have declared war on the rights of America's 80 million gun owners. From the outset, the National Rifle Association has respected the confirmation process and hoped for mainstream answers to bedrock questions. Unfortunately, Judge Sotomayor's judicial record and testimony clearly demonstrate a...

...On Wednesday, legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin implied that the Supreme Court’s 2008 decision to uphold the Second Amendment was revolutionary: “When I was in law school...the idea that you had a Second Amendment right to a gun was considered preposterous....But the Supreme Court [in Heller]...said that...individuals have a personal right to bear arms.”...Anchor Wolf Blitzer raised the Second Amendment issue with Toobin, a graduate of Harvard Law School, and the others on their panel analyzing the hearings.... [and] asked...what were the nominee’s “positions, specifically on the federal obligation to support the Second Amendment, as opposed to local communities..?” The CNN...analyst...

Damon W. Root | July 9, 2009, 4:49pm Writing in the Virginia Law Review last fall, conservative federal appeals court Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III took aim at the Supreme Court's landmark gun rights opinion in District of Columbia v. Heller. According to Wilkinson, "Heller encourages Americans to do what conservative jurists warned for years they should not do: bypass the ballot and seek to press their political agenda in the courts." In fact, Wilkinson went so far as to compare Justice Antonin Scalia's majority opinion in Heller with the Supreme Court's famous abortion rights decision in Roe v. Wade,...