Guns and Supreme Court: Is Second Amendment a Privilege, Not a Right?

By Trevor Burrus Trevor Burrus

The Supreme Court unwisely declined to review Drake v. Jerejian, last week, a case that challenged New Jersey’s discretionary system of concealed-carry permitting.

By denying review, the Court failed to resolve a nationwide split about the meaning of the Second Amendment.

Eventually, the Court will have to face the issue and decide if it was serious when it held that the Second Amendment protects an individual’s right to keep and bear arms.

Both Heller and McDonald made it clear that the government cannot ban or effectively ban guns, but lower courts are still struggling to define what restrictions are allowed under those rulings.

In 2008, in the landmark case of D.C. v. Heller, the Supreme Court held that the Second Amendment protects the individual right to keep and bear arms.

“Eventually, the Court will have decide if it was serious when it held that the Second Amendment protects an individual’s right to keep and bear arms.”

Later, in 2010’s McDonald v. Chicago, the Court held that the Second Amendment protects citizens from not just federal prohibitions, as Heller said, but also from state and municipal prohibitions.

Since that time, the Court has not heard another Second Amendment case. Both Hellerand McDonald made it clear that the …read more

Source:: Cato Institute