How Heller Botched the Second Amendment
Ask any gun enthusiast about the basis or origins of our right to keep and bear arms, and many will undoubtedly bring up the landmark case District of Columbia et al. v. Heller , decided by the United States Supreme Court in 2008. This case is touted as the vindication of the rights of lawful gun owners. Justice Antonin Scalia wrote the majority opinion, and the Court held that the Second Amendment protects an individual’s right to possess a firearm unconnected with service in the militia, and to use a firearm for traditionally lawful purposes, such as self-defense, within the home. Gun rights activists cheered the decision. But should they have? The case came before the court after the District of Columbia essentially banned the possession of unregistered firearms, and prohibited the registration of handguns. The City also required handguns to be kept in a non-functioning state when stored inside one’s home – meaning, kept unloaded and disassembled or bound with a trigger lock. Heller was a police officer who sought to register a handgun he wished to keep at home. After the District refused to allow the registration, he sued, citing the Second Amendment as the basis to stop the District from enforcing the ban on handgun registration. The Second Amendment states the following: “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.” Accordingly, the court struck down the city’s laws […]
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