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Second Amendment to get second SCOTUS look?

By: BridgeTower Media Newswires//August 16, 2011

Second Amendment to get second SCOTUS look?

By: BridgeTower Media Newswires//August 16, 2011//

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new U.S. Supreme Court term is already set to be one for the record books with issues like immigration reform, same-sex marriage rights, the constitutionality of warrantless GPS tracking and the health care law all on tap. But there could be another high profile issue before the justices — again: the Second Amendment.

The Washington Post’s Robert Barnes reports that since the court handed down rulings in DC v. Heller and McDonald v. Chicago that the individual right to own firearms applies in federal, state and local laws, gun rights proponents have actually been losing challenges in lower courts.

A plethora of lawsuits have been filed seeking to strike down gun control laws, but according to a report by the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence titled “Hallow Victory?” the courts are applying Heller and McDonald in a very narrow way.

“Three years and more than 400 legal challenges later, courts — so far — have held that the Supreme Court’s ruling in Heller was narrow and limited, and that the Second Amendment does not interfere with the people’s right to enact legislation protecting families and communities from gun violence,” the report stated.

That all could mean the Supreme Court could get a second shot and deciding just when gun control laws run afoul of the Second Amendment. As stated in a Maryland Court of Appeals ruling: “If the Supreme Court … meant its holding to extend beyond home possession, it will need to say so more plainly.”

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