Spring Break
2nd Amendment ruling leaves questions
By: Christopher B. Buckley
Issue date: 7/2/08 Section: News
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District of Columbia v. Heller resulted from a 2003 Washington, D.C., District Court ruling that restricted D.C. residents from possessing handguns and required that shotguns and rifles be kept unloaded and disassembled.
The 5-4 Supreme Court ruling allows residents to possess handguns and eliminates the requirements that rifles and shotguns be kept unloaded and disassembled.
The contentious issue is the Second Amendment and whether or not it gives citizens an individual right to possess firearms. Supreme Court Justices Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas and Chief Justice John Roberts ruled the law was in violation of the Second Amendment.
Scalia wrote for the majority and dispelled the contentions that the Second Amendment applies strictly to firearm usage for the militia or military.
"No dictionary has ever adopted that definition, and we have been apprised of no source that indicates that it carried that meaning at the time of the founding."
The dissenters were Justices John Paul Stevens, Stephen Breyer, David Souter and Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Writing for the dissent, Stevens stated, "Specifically, there is no indication that the Framers of the Amendment intended to enshrine the common-law right of self-defense in the Constitution."
Dissenters of the court ruling may have been swayed by the Virginia Tech massacre, a fatal campus shooting that occurred 14 months before the court ruling was made.
On April 16, 2007, Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 people before turning the gun on himself.
Prior to the shootings, Cho had been diagnosed with a severe anxiety disorder and depression. Such mental health issues are reason enough for gun proponents and opponents to deny an individual a firearm.
The ruling of the Supreme Court, however, spawns debate between students about whether or not conceal-to-carry weapons on campus should be permitted.
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