In an astonishing ruling, an Illinois judge has decreed that U.S. citizens have a right to keep arms, but do not have the right to bear them.  Judge Sue Myerscough, an Obama appointee, issued the ruling in response to a challenge filed by the Second Amendment Foundation, in opposition to the prohibition against carrying concealed weapons in Illinois.  Myerscough contends that, “[although the] plaintiffs argue that the Second Amendment protects a general right to carry guns that include a right to carry operable guns in public … [the] Supreme Court has not recognized a right to bear firearms outside the home.”

Myerscough added that the Supreme Court “has cautioned courts not to expand on its limited holding.”

But, as Raquel Okyay, writing for Human Events, points out:

“However, the inherent and very real rights contained in the Second Amendment lies in our favor, still; and the SAF on February 6 filed an appeal to the United States Supreme Court. SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb issued this statement:

‘The Second Amendment does not say, the right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed except outside your home or that it only applies inside your house. We don’t check our constitutional rights at the front door.’”

And

“The very atmosphere of firearms anywhere and everywhere restrains evil interference – they deserve a place of honor with all that’s good.” — George Washington

Incidentally, Judge Myerscough did not find a constitutional problem with the state laws:

“’The United States Supreme Court and the Seventh Circuit (Appellate Court) have recognized only a Second Amendment core individual right to bear arms inside the home,’ Myerscough said in her ruling. ‘Further, even if this court recognized a Second Amendment right to bear arms outside of the home and an interference with that right, the statutes nonetheless survive constitutional scrutiny.’”

Relevant to Meyerscough’s ruling is McDonald v. Chicago, a 2010 case in which the Supreme Court ruled against the handgun ban.  The court affirmed that “self-defense is a basic right.”  What’s more, the court maintained that, “self defense is ‘the central component’ of the Second Amendment right.”

And, in Columbia v. Heller, in 2008, the Supreme Court ruled that, “[t]he Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess firearms and that the city’s total ban on handguns, as well as its requirement that firearms in the home be kept nonfunctional even when necessary for self-defense, violated that right.”

Rep. Timothy Johnson (R-IL) has introduced H.R. 3543, the National Right-to- Carry Reciprocity Act of 2011 which seeks to amend title 18, United States Code, to provide a national standard in accordance with which nonresidents of a State may carry concealed firearms in the State.  It has been referred to the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security and status updates can be obtained at OpenCongress.Org.

In another recent ruling, a federal district court in Washington, D.C. upheld an Obama administration policy that requires federally licensed firearms retailers, in states bordering Mexico, to report multiple sales of semi-automatic rifles.  Opposed by two NRA-backed firearms retailers and by the National Shooting Sports Foundation, an appeal will be filed on behalf of its affected members.

According to the NRA-ILA, the plan, concocted by Attorney General Eric Holder’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, requires all of the 8,700 firearm dealers in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas to report all sales of two or more semi-automatic rifles within five consecutive business days, if the rifles are larger than .22 caliber and use detachable magazines.  (The plaintiffs in the case pointed out that this would impact approximately 20 times more dealers than had been subject to any similar “demand letter” before. But, in this decision the court nonetheless found the new requirement “limited in scope.”)

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) called the new policy “the height of hypocrisy,” and accused the Obama administration of restricting the gun rights of border state citizens “when the administration knowingly and intentionally allowed guns to be trafficked into Mexico.  Smith continued by saying that “limiting the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens is not going to solve the problem.”

In March 2011, U.S. Sens. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) and Richard Burr (R-N.C.) introduced legislation (S. 570) which would prohibit the Department of Justice from tracking and cataloguing the purchases of multiple rifles and shotguns.  The bill would prohibit the use of federal funds for the multiple sales reporting scheme proposed by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.  The status of the bill can be tracked here.

-Candice Lanier

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