(We are pleased to post the following press release from GunFreeKids.org).
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Andy Pelosi (914-629-6726), email: andy@gunfreekids.org
(June 28, 2010, New York) – Earlier today, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Second Amendment applies to state and local governments. The Court considered the case of McDonald v. City of Chicago, where the City of Chicago prohibits private ownership of handguns. The case was remanded to the lower court for further consideration in line with today’s interpretation of the Second Amendment. The McDonald decision follows the Court’s 2008 decision in District of Columbia v. Heller, which held that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to own a handgun for self-defense in the home.
Andy Pelosi, executive director of GunFreeKids.org issued the following statement:
“While we disagree with today’s ruling by the Court, which could have the effect of depriving state and local governments of the ability to chose how best to protect their residents, it does appear that reasonable firearms laws can survive. In the McDonald decision, Justice Alito writes, “We made it clear in Heller that our holding did not cast doubt on such longstanding regulatory measures as ‘prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill,’ ‘laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings, or laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms.’ … We repeat those assurances here. Despite [the city of Chicago's] doomsday proclamations, incorporation does not imperil every law regulating firearms.”
Despite Justice Alito’s statement in McDonald that [incorporation does not imperil every law regulating firearms], we anticipate an onslaught of lawsuits filed by the gun lobby challenging most, if not all, of the laws regulating firearms on the state and local levels.
After the pundits have their say about what the McDonald decision means or does not mean, one fact will remain, and that is: 80 people will be killed by guns in America by this time tomorrow. What are we as a society going to do about this national disgrace?” The choice of what to do is up to us – do we value the gun more than we value the life?”
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