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Supreme Court Gun Rulings

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The Cases of The District of Columbia vs. Heller and Lopez vs. the United States: a look at Supreme Court gun law cases, rulings, and the current abuse of executive privilege under the Second Amendment.

The Second Amendment to the Constitution is the right to keep and bear arms by every law abiding citizen in the United States. In this dialog, we will look at the aforementioned Supreme Court cases to better understand the limitations of the Central Governments ability to interfere with this individual right. In the case of the District of Columbia vs. Heller, the primary issue in this case was the complete ban of handguns in homes within the District of Columbia unless they are unserviceable. This case was brought by Dick Heller in an action claiming that a complete ban violates the 2nd Amendment right guaranteed to the citizens of this country. In the case of Lopez vs. the United States, Congress attempted to control where individuals could carry weapons through the invalid use and exercise of the commerce clause power. At first look into the District of Columbia vs. Heller case, the power to solicit and control gun regulation belongs to the States, not the Federal Government. The District of Columbia is not a state and therefore does not possess the authority to install gun regulations on the citizenry living there as they are residents of Maryland and Virginia and are so governed by the gun laws which exist in those states depending on which state they are located in. The Supreme Court stated that when the Constitution referred to the “right of the people” that this refers to individual rights and not collective rights. Additionally, to keep or bear arms means literally to hold in one’s possession and therefore the literal approach to the amendment and the states amendments means that each

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