2nd Amendment extended to states and local governments

[Stiofan]

Federal Appeals Court has said the 2nd Amendment applies to state and local governments.

Now this is big news. Of course the liberal media has mostly remained silent on the ruling, but what is amazing is that the most liberal of the federal appeals courts, the 9th Circuit, was the one which made the ruling! They are restricting powers of state and local governments to interfere with the individual right to gun ownership. This if it stands, could be the end of much of the individual states and cities actions to stop the right to keep and bear arms (RTKBA).

Brief synopsis, the court has ruled that a local government is required to abide by the 2nd Amendment, just like the Federal Government is required to do.

The court did insist that the RTKBA was limited to to one's home and for self defense, as it affirmed the California county's ability to keep arms off of government property, in this case a county fairgrounds where show promoters had hoped to use for a gun show.

This basically take the Heller case which applied to the District of Columbia, and extends that ruling to the jurisdiction of the 9th Circuit, and it can be used as precedent in other jurisdictions if not overturned by SCOTUS.

It should be noted that the 9th Circuit had previously ruled the plantiffs, as individuals, were precluded from bringing suit on 2nd Amendment grounds as the 2nd Amendment only contained a collective right to gun ownership, not an individual one. Once Heller was decided the court allowed the plaintiffs to amend their suit to reinclude the 2nd Amendment argument.

PDF of ruling

The County does little to refute this powerful evidence that the right to bear arms is deeply rooted in the history and tradition of the Republic, a right Americans considered fundamental at the Founding and thereafter. The County instead argues that the states, in the exercise of their police power, are the instrumentalities of the right of self-defense at the heart of the Second Amendment. This argument merely rephrases the collective rights argument the Supreme Court rejected in Heller.
Indeed, one need only consider other constitutional rights to see the poverty of this contention. State police power also covers, for instance, some of the conduct the First Amendment protects, but that does not deny individuals the right to assert First Amendment rights against the states.

We therefore conclude that the right to keep and bear arms is “deeply rooted in this Nation’s history and tradition.”
Colonial revolutionaries, the Founders, and a host of commentators and lawmakers living during the first one hundred years of the Republic all insisted on the fundamental nature of the right. It has long been regarded as the “true palladium of liberty.” Colonists relied on it to assert and to win their independence, and the victorious Union sought to prevent a recalcitrant South from abridging it less than a century later.
The crucial role this deeply rooted right has played in our birth and history compels us to recognize that it is indeed fundamental, that it is necessary to the Anglo-American conception of ordered liberty that we have inherited. We are therefore persuaded that the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment incorporates the Second Amendment and applies it against the states and local governments.

[CathyInBlue]

"We, the most Left-Wing, the most overturned circuit court in history, agree with the Right-Wing that the 2nd Amendment is incorporated by the 14th Amendment as enforceable against States and localities. However, we can't help but show our Liberal slant by opining that we see nothing wrong with States and localities regulating this Constitutional right out of existence everywhere but the home.

"After all, your rights to freedom of speech are only valid if you're speaking inside your own home. You have no right to freedom of worship unless you're in your own home. You have no rights against self-incrimination, to a speedy trial, or against unreasonable search and seizure unless you're being interrogated, tried, or searched inside the four walls of your own home, so it's only natural that States can limit your right to keep and bear arms to only your home as well."

[Liberty1]

A huge decision which effects 20% of the US population. Let the games begin!!! This right needs to be fleshed out so it can be exercised! I see loaded open carry within 5 years for the 9th's territory!

[Stiofan]

California doesn't have the RKBA in their Constitution, being one of six states that don't. Now it doesn't matter if this ruling stands. There is also a question of whether CCW holders from other states would be allowed to carry concealed while in California (now they cannot) such as if the state is allowing some residents to do so but denying other Americans the same rights.

[Wolfling68]

I really like the explanation of Rights and Powers:

" there is a fundamental difference between "rights" (which people possess inherently) and "powers" (which government's possess after being authorized them by the people)...... Goverments don't have rights, and they never will. They have powers, which derive from the consent of the people."

A very good way of saying that. I still think we need a clear way to remind people that along with rights comes responsibility....
Athority, responsibility and accountibility must all be equal.

[melloyello]

This is awesome -

This should really start the ball rolling for States to start complying with the 2nd Amendment.
Or at least start expanding law suits against the states

[Scarecrow]

This is awesome -

This should really start the ball rolling for States to start complying with the 2nd Amendment.
Or at least start expanding law suits against the states

I sure hope the ball will get rolling asap!