DC v. Heller
Well, since no one else wants to talk about anything, I will start. Has anyone else been trying to follow this court case? This is the Supreme Court case on whether or not D.C. can ban guns or not. There are several interesting points in the case. Does the Second Amendment apply to individuals, or only to states? Do the individuals have to be in the militia or not? Is D.C. treated as a state or not? Is D.C. really a part of the federal government? D.C. is claiming that the Second Amendment does not apply to individuals, and that it would not apply to D.C. anyway since D.C. is not part of Congress. Heller is claiming that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to keep firearms (not even addressing the bearing), and that it applies to D.C. specifically. The ban is the strictest in the nation, requiring registration of handguns - with no new registrations having been allowed since the late 1970's - and requiring long guns to be kept disassembled and secured in the house. So far, this case has drawn interest from all sides, with two different groups of state Attorneys General filing briefs (one for each side) and two different groups of congressmen filing briefs (one group per side). Lots of briefs filed by other special interest groups. The latest development is that the US SOlicitor General (part of Department of Justice) filed a brief saying that the Second protects individual rights but that this allows for reasonable restrictions. Talk about trying to split the middle of the issue there. Some extreme predictions from both sides on what the consequences are. I think the SCOTUS will make a very narrow ruling that only applies to D.C. They will have to answer the part about individual rights though. If they do say it is an individual right, it will be a long hard fight to get more laws overturned on gun control. I saw one article which likened the case to Brown v. Board of Education, where segregation in schools was ruled unconstitutional. We are still having court cases on that issue now, over 50 years later. In that aspect, I can see this cae going that way. What do you all think? Do you care about the case at all?
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