The Knox Report
From the Firearms Coalition
Courts Misusing Heller
By Jeff Knox
(September 10, 2008) “A person does not have the right under the Second Amendment, or under any other provision of the Constitution, to possess a machinegun. A person does not have a right, under the Second Amendment, or under any other provision of the Constitution, to possess a rifle with a barrel shorter than 16 inches that the person has not registered in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record.” (Instructions to the jury in U.S. v. Gilbert)
In the months since the US Supreme Court’s landmark decision in District of Columbia v. Heller, there have been over a dozen rulings by judges referencing the case and virtually all of them used Heller to support limitations on firearms rights. The degree to which they used the opinion ranged from simply rebutting an appellant’s erroneous claim that Heller nullifies the law under which they were convicted, to actually using the language in the Heller opinion to support restrictions as constitutional. In U.S. v. Gilbert, the Federal Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit did both.
On appeal, the 9th Circuit rejected Gilbert’s claim Continue reading Courts Misusing Heller →
The Knox Report
From the Firearms Coalition
Heller’s Up and Parker’s on Deck
By Jeff Knox
(November 28, 2007) The Supreme Court will review the D.C. gun ban case. The case, originally known as Parker v. D.C. is now known as D.C. v. Heller. The name change is a source of confusion, which we’ll explain momentarily. Another matter of confusion is who’s behind the case. It is often reported that this case is a project of the libertarian Cato Institute; that’s not true. While several key players in the case are closely associated with Cato, the organization itself did not fund or sponsor the action. It is true however that NRA was not happy about this case going forward but has filed a supporting amicus brief and recently began using it as a fundraising appeal.
The story so far: Last March the Federal Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled in Parker v. D.C. that the District’s rigid gun control laws violated D.C. citizens’ rights under the Second Amendment. The court declared that the Second Amendment refers to an individual right, but left plenty of wriggle room by suggesting that “reasonable restrictions” do not constitute “infringement.”
Continue reading Heller →
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