Is there a Constitutional right to carry a gun in public?
December 11, 2008A U.S. Court in Utah thinks (.pdf file) so:
By itself, mere possession of a firearm in public is not unlawful and may well represent the exercise of a fundamental constitutional right guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution….. See District of Columbia v. Heller, 128 S. Ct. 2783, 2799 (2008) (“There seems to us no doubt, on the basis of both text and history, that the Second Amendment conferred an individual right to keep and bear arms.â€)….. Salt Lake City’s asserted governmental interest in its police officers’ response to a report of a “man with a gun†in a public park cannot be weighed in isolation….there may well be more individual constitutional rights at stake than the Fourth Amendment freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures.
Hat tip: Best magazine ever.
Tags: gun control, Utah
December 27th, 2008 at 9:57 am
I sure would like the legal right to occasionally carry a sidearm from the house to my garage some evenings. Remember that enterprising youth who used a bicycle to very quickly roll up on citizens who were returning home from work, backing into their property, garage, etc? I would wager some of these East Bluff bicyclists might not be above trying something similar. Remember that 40-ish man returning home after a few drinks
gunned down in driveway/alleyway near 1600 New York 12:30am for no apparent reason?
Aaahh… Life in the hood.
I enjoyed reading the thoughtful comments afterward, too. Thanks for the post.
-Scott
December 27th, 2008 at 10:02 am
Astronomy remains a serious hobby, its not out of the norm to be to/from observatories/star parties at that late hour.