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The Second Amendment to the Constitution, now under consideration by the U.S. Supreme Court in the District of Columbia v. Heller case, raises a grammatical question as well as a legal question. The grammatical structure of this one sentence Amendment creates two arguable meanings. Did it created a collective right of the people "to keep and bear arms" as members of a "well regulated militia?" Or did it created and individual right for each American "to keep and bear arms?" The First Amendment affirmatively and clearly states that "Congress shall make no law" respecting religion, or abridging the freedoms of...

How incredible it is that in the U.S., where so many people have been killed by gunfire for decades, the country's Supreme Court is just now getting around to deciding what the constitutional right to have and carry guns means. Last week, the court indicated that it's ready to interpret the Second Amendment. It was seized with an appeal from a federal appeals court ruling last year that declared the District of Columbia's near-ban on handguns unconstitutional. There's been a lot of controversy already about what the amendment means because of the way it's written: "A well regulated Militia, being...

Technically, the challenge is to a District of Columbia handgun ban. Realistically, the U.S. Supreme Court last week heard oral arguments and took under advisement a case that could have historic ramifications for the right to bear arms. Is that right restricted to a "well regulated militia," or does it embrace private ownership by individuals? The early indication is that the justices are leaning toward the latter. The case is known as District of Columbia v. Heller. Dick Anthony Heller is an Army veteran and security guard at a federal building in the nation's capital. Because of the District of...

When U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy says the Bill of Rights guarantees Americans' "general right to bear arms," chances are very good the tone and direction of the long national debate over gun laws is about to change radically. At a high court hearing March 18, Justice Kennedy, considered the pivotal vote in this case involving the constitutionality of the Washington, D.C., handgun ban, said repeatedly the Founders intended citizens to have the right to own guns to defend themselves and their families against Indians, outlaws and wild animals, which is precisely what gun-rights advocates have argued for decades....

"One loves to possess arms, though they hope never to have occasion for them." -- Thomas Jefferson, to George Washington, June 19, 1796. "After a shooting spree, they always want to take the guns away from the people who didn't do it." -- William S. Burroughs. Big Tim Sullivan was a notorious Irish gangster whose mob controlled New York City south of 14th Street around the turn of the 20th century. Throwing in his lot with the likes of Monk Eastman, Paul Kelly and Arnold Rothstein, Sullivan became an expert on that dark nexus where organized crime and politics consummate...

The Second Amendment, The Court & The Election by A.J. DiCintio, Featured Writer March 25, 2008   “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.” Those of us who read the Second Amendment in the context of American history, American tradition, and the significance of the main clause in a sentence think it ludicrous that any person would argue it guarantees the right to keep and bear arms only to citizens serving in a government militia.  However, history teaches that no...

A Supreme Cause for Optimism   By Bill Steigerwald FrontPageMagazine.com | Tuesday, March 25, 2008 Fans of gun rights and scholarly defenders of the U.S. Constitution alike were left pleased and optimistic by what they heard U.S. Supreme Court justices say March 18 during oral arguments for a case challenging Washington, D.C.'s, sweeping, super-strict gun law. The plaintiff in District of Columbia v. Heller argues that D.C.'s ban -- which essentially makes it illegal for private citizens to own handguns at all or possess rifles that are assembled or unlocked and ready to use -- violates the Second Amendment....

The Supreme Court heard oral arguments last week in its first Second Amendment case since 1939. The historic D.C. v. Heller case involves a challenge to the District of Columbia's total ban on the possession of usable weapons for self-defense in the home. The plaintiff, D.C. resident Richard Heller, argues that the ban violates his rights under the Constitution, which declares that the "right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed." Lawyers on both sides relied mostly on arguments about the meaning and intent of the Second Amendment, specifically whether it applied to individuals and...

In a "move that surprised some observers," the Chicago Tribune reported Wednesday, attorney Alan Gura, appearing before the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of the federal guard who sued the District of Columbia in 2003, claiming he feels unsafe because he's not allowed to keep his guns at home, "appeared to concede large chunks of his argument, moving away from an absolutist position on gun rights." "He concurred, at one point, with Justice Stephen Breyer that a ban on machine guns or plastic guns" (whatever those are) "would be constitutional because those weren't the kind of arms normally carried by...

Nearly 135 years ago, the United States experienced what may have been the worst one-day slaughter of blacks by whites in its history. On April 13, 1873, in the tiny village of Colfax, La., white paramilitaries attacked a lightly armed force of freedmen assembled in a local courthouse. By the time the Colfax Massacre was over, more than 60 African American men lay shot, burned or stabbed to death. Most were killed after they had surrendered. Though it caused a national sensation in post-Civil War America, this horrible incident has been largely overlooked by historians. It deserves fresh study today...

The U.S. Supreme Court should allow Dick Heller to keep a handgun in his home. Dick Anthony Heller is a 66-year-old security guard who carries a handgun to protect the employees and property at the federal building where he works in Washington, D.C. Because Heller also is a resident of the District of Columbia, he is prohibited from having a handgun in his home for self-protection. Heller sued to overturn the city of Washington’s 1976 gun-control law that also requires all rifles or shotguns in D.C. homes to be disassembled or kept under trigger lock. Heller sued claiming that the...

Yesterday, unbeknownst to itself, the Supreme Court heard arguments in a gay-rights case. To most people, admittedly, District of Columbia v. Heller is a gun-rights case. In fact, it's the most important gun-rights case in decades, one that may cast a shadow for decades to come. But to gay Americans, and other minorities often targeted with violence, Heller is about civil rights, not shooting clubs. Nine years ago, one of the first columns I wrote for National Journal told the story of Tom G. Palmer. One night some years ago in San Jose, he found himself confronting a gang of...

It isn't often that the Supreme Court gets to dig down to Constitutional bedrock in the Bill of Rights. --snip-- America, represented by the solicitor general, sought to avoid linking the right to keep and bear arms to militias, apparently for fear the justices could end up allowing ordinary citizens to keep the kinds of weapons modern militias use, like machine guns. New York City's law isn't as strict as that of the Columbia district, but it's close. In New York City one needs a permit from the police department to keep a handgun at home. The problem is that...

Pro-gun attorney David Hardy attended the oral argument in Heller, and he writes : "Joe Olson and I were out drinking with Alan Gura [an attorney representing the pro-gun side] last night, and he was getting a constant stream of emails from machinegun owners on his pda, denouncing his statement that full auto arms' possession might not be protected by the 2nd Amendment. I think EVERYONE associated with this case who knows anything about appellate argument — and I've talked to many in that class — agreed that if you cannot come up with a 2nd Amendment test that lets...

The U.S. Supreme Court last ruled in a case involving the Second Amendment to the Constitution 69 years ago. And when it did, it was looking at a case in which two men had violated a law by transporting a double-barrel shotgun from Oklahoma to Arkansas. The ruling was narrow. And it was the court's last word on the Second Amendment. Until now, that is. The high court will hear arguments today in a highly anticipated case on the constitutionality of an exceedingly restrictive gun law in the District of Columbia. While the ruling will be restricted to the law...

Gun owners had their day in court on Tuesday, when the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the DC v. Heller case, which involves a challenge to the DC gun ban. Absent some world-shaking surprise, it is pretty clear that there are five votes on the Supreme Court to declare that the Second Amendment is an individual right. That fact alone should be enough to settle the argument over gun control and protect gun owners' rights. But as we all know, that's where the battle over the meaning of the Second Amendment begins. More to the point, Justice John...

Bearing Arms... Against Bears... Justice Kennedy thinks D.C. residents need protection — from grizzlies. Is the D.C. gun law constitutional? With all due respect to those who complain that the justices on the Supreme Court are too secretive, and for those who wish, perhaps, that David Souter was more like David "West Side Days Inn" Paterson, oral argument today in District of Columbia v. Heller offers up a bounty of alarming personal revelations. The least of which is that judges are completely political. But who knew that a case testing the scope of the Second Amendment's "right to bear arms"...

D.C. firearms ban can't negate constitutional right Does the Constitution grant individuals the right to bear arms, or is that right reserved exclusively for members of a "well-regulated militia"? After 69 years of silence on the Second Amendment, the U.S. Supreme Court took up that question Monday in the historic case of District of Columbia v. Heller, a challenge to the District of Columbia's ban on all functional firearms. "The Supreme Court heard arguments about whether or not the Second Amendment actually means anything," said Alan Gura, my co-counsel in the case ... Does it protect a collective right of...

After falling into desuetude for the better part of a century, the Second Amendment is back in the forefront of American constitutional law. In the case of D.C. v. Heller, the Court finally takes up the question which has languished since its 1930s-vintage decision in Miller: Does the Constitution guarantee an individual a right to bear arms. In this case, the Court will decide whether the a state may ban handguns outright, and also will weigh in on the propriety of various other regulations of firearms. Perhaps sensing the importance of the case itself, the Supreme Court has provided a...

The Supreme Court of the United States has decided to take on the DC v. Heller case, and one of our candidates for Congress recently discussed the case with Jerry Agar, and you can listen in below: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FE6hAVzJyJU Its always good to see someone from this area get recognized nationally. John Armor is running for Congress in the NC-11 district. Here are two of the places I have been frequenting to keep up with this very important case, SCOTUSblog, and The Volokh Conspiracy, although the Bench Memo and the blogfather have been following it as well.