The Supreme Court has finally agreed to look into the constitutionality of Chicago’s ban on handguns.
In June, 2008, in District of Columbia, et al. v. Dick Anthony Heller, the supreme court ruled that the Second Amendment applies to individuals and rendered the District’s ban on handguns unconstitutional:
In sum, we hold that the District’s ban on handgun possession in the home violates the Second Amendment, as does its prohibition against rendering any lawful firearm in the home operable for the purpose of immediate self-defense … We affirm the judgment of the Court of Appeals.
The ruling unequivocally holds the following:
The Second Amendment 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.
Shortly after that ruling, gun rights supporters including the National Rifle Association (NRA) challenged anti-gun laws in Chicago and some of its suburbs by pushing the process of selective incorporation of the Bill of Rights, but were over-ruled. However, Judge Frank Easterbrook, Chief Justice of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals invited the Supreme Court justices to rule on the incorporation of the Second Amendment into Illinois state law as well as municipalities within the state.
The Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment has been used to apply most of the Bill of Rights to the states but the Second Amendment has been a notoriously sticky issue given the mention of a ‘well regulated militia.’
Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley is firmly entrenched in his anti-gun position and won’t give up the ban without a fight and given the history of Chicago politics, it’ll likely be a dirty fight. Mayor Daley is the CEO of the Mayors Against Illegal Guns Coalition, an organization for city mayors to coordinate efforts against illegal firearms, which also lobbies congress aggressively against rights such as reciprocity of out-of-state carry permits.
Stay tuned.
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