If you are at least moderately aware of the world around you I’m sure you know that last year the Supreme Court used the 2nd Amendment to invalidate a very restrictive gun law in the District of Columbia. Good times, right? Well it’s not that simple. See DC is not a state, so it’s rules are uniquely federal in nature. As such, the court only ruled that the federal government cannot take the right to keep and bear arms away from the people, but the various state and local governments can.
Totally bizarre right? Well it is the result of a long, tortuous line of cases that started before the Civil War when states rights were far stronger than they are today. Since that time the court has included many of the rights you are aware of through the fourteenth amendment to include all governments, but they have been handled individually. That brings us to McDonald v. City of Chicago, a case before the court during this term. The question at hand is simple: Does the 2nd amendment right explained last session in District of Columbia v. Heller apply to state and local governments?
Here’s some good legal analysis on the history and possible outcomes.
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