Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals:
Why you should be concerned about the December 2002 decision

December 2002
Matt Warner

Earlier this month, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (which covers 9 western states, including California) declared that the Second Amendment to the US Constitution does not apply to individuals. Why should you care? If the Second Amendment, with its wording "right of the people"—identical to the First Amendment—can be dismissed, then what prevents the other Amendments from being declared as not individual rights? Regardless of what you may think about guns or gun control, the issue at hand here is really about rights and sustaining the Constitution, not popular opinion. The erosion of any of those protected rights or the empowerment of the government beyond the bounds set down should be cause for concern.

The US Constitution and its amendments, the first ten of which make up the Bill of Rights, are the framework set carefully set down by the Founding Fathers. The intention was to restrict the power of the government, thereby protecting the freedoms, rights, and privileges which they believed preexistent—protected, not granted, by the Constitution. Some readers are undoubtedly familiar with other amendments such as the first (free speech) and fourth (basis for privacy), among others.

A no-holds barred summary: http://www.claremont.org/projects/doctors/021215wheeler.html

An AP report: http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/state/20021206-0018-ca-assaultweapons.html

The actual text of the decision (long link).

A long, but very thorough look at all the issues surrounding the second amendment: http://www.shadeslanding.com/firearms/embar.html

The Second Amendment itself: "A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed."

The First Amendment, for comparison: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

You make the call: is the mention of "the people" in the amendments about us collectively or individually? Do individuals have the right to peaceably assemble or will the government decide whether you have to belong to a particular group? Requiring and denying you a permit would effectively deny you this right.