Paul Helmke, President of the Brady Center and Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, issued the following statement:
“................We are pleased that the Court reaffirmed its language in District of Columbia v. Heller that the Second Amendment individual right to possess guns IN THE HOME (CAPS inserted for emphasis) for self-defense does not prevent our elected representatives from enacting common-sense gun laws to protect our communities from gun violence. We are reassured that the Court has rejected, once again, the gun lobby argument that its ‘any gun, for anybody, anywhere’ (OUTSIDE OF THE HOME) agenda is protected by the Constitution. The Court again recognized that the Second Amendment allows for reasonable restrictions on firearms, including who can have them and under what conditions, where they can be taken, and what types of firearms are available.................................."
WRONG again- Brady Bunch. The constitutionally protected right of self defense embodied in the keeping & bearing (YES -of a HANDGUN) exists wherever the need to exercise that right arises-regardless of statutory restrictions. The Court allowed for certain "reasonable" contemporary restrictions, but no restriction negates the fundamental substantive right. That right was recognized yesterday by the Supreme Court as being a pre-existing and protected substantive right under the U.S. Constitution, and that same federal constitutional protection is now extended into state and local jurisdictions. Although the Court was asked in Heller and McDonald to address the issue of KEEPING in the home, the substantive right to KEEP and BEAR arms incorporated under the due process clause of the 14th Amendment never has been and cannot be confined to the home.
