Press Release:Second Amendment Main article: Second Amendment to the United States Constitution 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.[71] The Second Amendment protects the right to keep and bear arms. The concept of a right to keep and bear arms existed within English common law long before the enactment of the Bill of Rights.[76] Eighteenth century English jurist and judge Sir William Blackstone described this right as a public allowance under due restrictions, of the natural right of resistance and self-preservation, when the sanctions of society and laws are found insufficient to restrain the violence of oppression.[77] First codified in the English Bill of Rights of 1689, this right was enshrined in fundamental laws of several states during the Revolutionary era, including the 1776 Virginia Declaration of Rights and the Pennsylvania Constitution of 1776. Long a controversial issue in American political, legal and social discourse, the Second Amendment has been at the heart of several Supreme Court decisions. In United States v. Cruikshank (1875), the Court ruled that [t]he right to bear arms is not granted by the Constitution; neither is it in any manner dependent upon that instrument for its existence. The Second Amendment means no more than that it shall not be infringed by Congress, and has no other effect than to restrict the powers of the National Government.[78] In United States v. Miller (1939), the Court ruled that the amendment [protects arms that had a] reasonable relationship to the preservation or efficiency of a well regulated militia.[79] In District of Columbia v. Heller (2008), the Court ruled that the Second Amendment codified a pre-existing right and that it protects an individual right to possess a firearm unconnected with service in a militia, and to use that arm for traditionally lawful purposes, such as self-defense within the home but also stated that the right is not unlimited. It is not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose.[80] In McDonald v. Chicago (2010),[81] the Court ruled that the Second Amendment limits state and local governments to the same extent that it limits the federal government.[82]end-30-paulcina3@gmail
Posted on: Thu, 25 Dec 2014 09:27:06 +0000
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