Supreme Court Turns Down Case on Carrying Guns in Public
The case concerned a federal law that prohibits possessing a gun after a conviction of “a crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year.” The law has an exception for “any state offense classified by the laws of the state as a misdemeanor
and punishable by a term of imprisonment of two years or less.”
In separate cases, two Pennsylvania men said the law was unconstitutional as applied to them.
“The Supreme Court has not answered that question, and we do not answer it here.”
The Supreme Court also turned down a second case on gun rights, this one about the constitutionality
of a law prohibiting people convicted of serious crimes from owning guns.
San Diego, for instance, defined good cause to require proof
that the applicant was “in harm’s way,” adding that “simply fearing for one’s personal safety alone is not considered good cause.”
In a 7-to-4 ruling, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in San
Francisco, said there was no Second Amendment right to carry a concealed weapon.
“Based on the overwhelming consensus of historical sources, we conclude
that the protection of the Second Amendment — whatever the scope of that protection may be — simply does not extend to the carrying of concealed firearms in public by members of the general public,” Judge William A. Fletcher wrote for the majority.
“There may or may not be a Second Amendment right for a member of the general public to carry a firearm openly in public,” Judge Fletcher wrote.