 Second Amendment & The Supreme Court
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NOTE: This summary was compiled by Lt. Col. Fielding Lewis Graves, US Army Retired (the HTML presentation and the case linkages are mine) and was published in the September 1, 1999 edition of The New Gun Week. It is here for all you to have so that you may share the information with others when those types of discussions come up.
The Supreme Court has stated repeatedly that the Second Amendment guarantees and protects the individual citizen's right to possess arms. Some misguided people swallow the false totalitarian ideology that only government should have arms, professing to believe the Second Amendment protects only a collective right of the states to have militias, and of militias to have arms. In statements related directly to the right of individual Americans to own, and lawfully use, arms, the Supreme Court at least 18 times has acknowledged that Americans enjoy individual constitutional rights to possess arms, saying:
- In 1857, that among the rights citizens enjoy by reason of their citizenship, rights which "..the courts would be bound to maintain and enforce.." are the rights "..to hold public meetings upon political affairs, and to keep and carry arms wherever they went." Scott v. Sanford, 60 US 691, 705 (1857)
- . In 1876, that the Constitution did not grant a right to arms, but that like the rights of assembly and petition, the right to possess arms existed long before the Constitution, and added: "Neither is it in any manner dependent upon that insturment for its existence." United States v. Cruickshank, 92 US 542, 553 (1876)
- In 1886, that "..the states cannot prohibit the people from keeping and bearing arms so as to ...disable the people from performing their (militia) duty to the general government." Presser v. Illinois, 116 US 252 (1886)
- In 1894, that the people's arms right is protected from federal infringement. Miller v. Texas, 153 US 535 (1894)
- In 1895, that individuals have a right to possess and use firearms for self-defense. Beard v. United States, 158 US 550 (1895)
- In 1897, that the right to possess arms is an "ancient" right, "..inherited from our English ancestors..", one of our "..fundamental.." rights, which has existed "..from time immemorial." Robertson v. Baldwin, 165 US 275 (1897)
- In 1914, that even a resident alien, the court implied, has the right to possess a handgun for self defense. Patsone v. Pennsylvania, 232 US 138 (1914)
- In 1939, that when called for militia duty, "..these men were expected to appear bearing arms supplied by themselves and of the kind in common use at the time." United States v. Miller, 307 US 174 (1939)
- At least seven times in this century -- 1908, 1932, 1936, 1963, 1968, 1976 and 1992 -- that the first eight amendments express fundamental personal rights guaranteed by the Constitution.
- In 1977 and 1980 that a person enjoys a fundamental right to arms until his first conviction of a felony offense, whereupon he loses that right:
- In 1990, that the term "..the people.." explicitly as used in the Second and other amendments, in the Preamble, and elsewhere in the Constitution, means all the individuals who make up our antional community. United States v. Verdugo-Urquidez, 494 US 259, 265 (1990)
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