Supreme Court won't overrule gun ownership restrictions
Richard Wolf, USA TODAY
3:08 p.m. EDT June 8, 2015
WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court refused to weigh in again Monday on one of its most controversial topics: the right to bear arms. The justices declined to reconsider the rights of local governments to constrain that right -- upheld by the high court in two landmark decisions over the past decade -- by requiring that handguns be disabled or locked up when they are not being carried. The high court left standing a San Francisco law imposing
those restrictions, but Justices San Francisco imposed the limitation in 2007 under threat of
a six-month jail term and $1,000 fine. The law was upheld by the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Those include San Francisco's ordinance is aimed at avoiding accidental tragedies. It requires that when handguns are not being carried -- such as at night, when their owners are asleep -- they be disabled with a trigger lock or kept in a locked container. The city noted in its brief opposing the high court's review
that "long" guns are not restricted and handguns can be kept
loaded. It said keeping them locked up "reduces the risk of
suicide and unintentional shootings, particularly among children
and A group of city residents who filed the suit, along with the "San Francisco has no more right than the District of Columbia to force its residents to fiddle with lock boxes or fumble with trigger locks when the need to use a handgun for immediate self-defense arises," the challengers argued in their brief seeking Supreme Court review. A coalition of 25 states sided with the city residents in urging the court to overturn the law. Otherwise, they said, "responsible citizens will be unable to possess operable firearms in defense of hearth and home." That was at the heart of the Thomas-Scalia dissent. "The law ... burdens their right to self-defense at the times they are most vulnerable -- when they are sleeping, bathing, changing clothes, or otherwise indisposed," Thomas wrote. "There is consequently no question that San Francisco's law burdens the core of the Second Amendment right." (c) Copyright 2015 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc. To subscribe or visit go to: www.usatoday.com http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/06/08/supreme-court-handguns/27716645/ |