Rhino
02-11-2008, 11:36 AM
Gun rights groups could challenge state laws after Supreme Court 2nd Amendment ruling
By Malcolm Maclachlan (published Thursday, February 07, 2008)
A gun-rights group is poised to challenge numerous California gun laws if the U.S. Supreme Court uses a gun-ban case out of Washington, D.C., to define the Second Amendment as an individual right.
“Any definition of the Second Amendment as an individual right is going to open up all kinds of legal avenues for us to overturn gun laws,” said Sam Paredes, executive director of Gun Owners of California. “We will change our focus from lobbying to legal action because the Legislature will be neutered. Any time they sponsor legislation we think is unconstitutional, we will challenge it.”
Paredes said his parent organization, Gun Owners of America, based in Virginia, has a legal fund ready to challenge state gun laws nationwide. He declined to say how much was in the account. But if D.C. loses its ability to maintain its gun ban on constitutional grounds, it will be “fundraising Disneyland” for pro-gun groups, Paredes said, and they would have little trouble gathering the money to challenge California’s assault weapons ban, the .50-caliber ban and numerous other gun laws.
The case in question, Heller vs. D.C., is the first serious Second Amendment challenge to gun laws in decades. It began in 2003, when attorney Bob Levy recruited several plaintiffs to challenge the city’s outright ban on handgun ownership. Oral arguments are set to begin in mid-March, with a decision due by the end of June.
While Levy is best known as a constitutional fellow at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, he brought the case on his own. Levy agrees that the case could result in legal challenges, but he said the case is narrowly focused.
“It lays the framework for challenging gun laws nationwide,” Levy said. “It’s a necessary step,” he added, but not sufficient on its own. Lower courts would still need to rule that the case applied to state laws, he said, though it is likely they would; in almost all cases, courts have found that the Bill of Rights applies to state laws. Even then, he added, courts may still find that some types of guns could still be regulated, such as so-called assault weapons....http://www.capitolweekly.net/article.php?xid=wvvzra5xciovjk
By Malcolm Maclachlan (published Thursday, February 07, 2008)
A gun-rights group is poised to challenge numerous California gun laws if the U.S. Supreme Court uses a gun-ban case out of Washington, D.C., to define the Second Amendment as an individual right.
“Any definition of the Second Amendment as an individual right is going to open up all kinds of legal avenues for us to overturn gun laws,” said Sam Paredes, executive director of Gun Owners of California. “We will change our focus from lobbying to legal action because the Legislature will be neutered. Any time they sponsor legislation we think is unconstitutional, we will challenge it.”
Paredes said his parent organization, Gun Owners of America, based in Virginia, has a legal fund ready to challenge state gun laws nationwide. He declined to say how much was in the account. But if D.C. loses its ability to maintain its gun ban on constitutional grounds, it will be “fundraising Disneyland” for pro-gun groups, Paredes said, and they would have little trouble gathering the money to challenge California’s assault weapons ban, the .50-caliber ban and numerous other gun laws.
The case in question, Heller vs. D.C., is the first serious Second Amendment challenge to gun laws in decades. It began in 2003, when attorney Bob Levy recruited several plaintiffs to challenge the city’s outright ban on handgun ownership. Oral arguments are set to begin in mid-March, with a decision due by the end of June.
While Levy is best known as a constitutional fellow at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, he brought the case on his own. Levy agrees that the case could result in legal challenges, but he said the case is narrowly focused.
“It lays the framework for challenging gun laws nationwide,” Levy said. “It’s a necessary step,” he added, but not sufficient on its own. Lower courts would still need to rule that the case applied to state laws, he said, though it is likely they would; in almost all cases, courts have found that the Bill of Rights applies to state laws. Even then, he added, courts may still find that some types of guns could still be regulated, such as so-called assault weapons....http://www.capitolweekly.net/article.php?xid=wvvzra5xciovjk