Heller Gun Control

On July 28th of 1967 Reagan signed the Mulford Act into law, the law stated that “from the moment it was signed anyone caught carrying a loaded gun on a public street in California would face five years in prison.” It was because of this law that there were many disputes between the black panthers and local law enforcement. With the arrest of their leader Huey Newton, the leadership of the panthers fell into the hands of Eldridge Cleaver who believed that the methods used previously again were not working. So he preached to the Panthers that their guns should be used on the offensive and that they should go out and “hunt down police officers during their coffee breaks”. This of course would not be tolerated by the federal government which

Starting with District of Columbia V. Heller, where a man by the name of Alan Gura was tasked with convincing the justices that the second amendment guaranteed individuals the right to own guns. The task at hand for him seemed a little too large for him due to the fact that he was not as experienced as his opponent Walter Dellinger. The National Rifle Association believed that his case would end poorly for their organization. They were also dead set on making sure the Supreme Court did not make a ruling on the meaning of the Second Amendment. So they tried with all of their power to stop Gura from pursuing the case, however Gura was determined to convince the court. At first the NRA tried to hijack his case and replace him with their own lawyer, which failed leading the NRA to lobby congress to pass a law which would overturn the D.C. gun laws rendering Gura’s case moot. The NRA knew that if Gura were to lose and the court made the decision that the second amendment didn’t protect individual’s rights to bear arms they would lose legal ground which they had fought so hard over. During February of 2003 Gura was able to finish the complaint he would file with the federal trial court in Washington. It was actually a rather short complaint, consisting of only a few pages with no extraneous issues or “trap doors.” His argument was that “the second amendment guarantees individuals a fundamental right to possess a functional personal firearm,” His choice for the lead plaintiff was a woman by the name of Shelly Parker who had fought drug dealers in her Capitol Hill neighborhood. Unfortunately the NRA was able to have his case dismissed “Because this court rejects the notion that there is an individual right to bear arms separate and apart from service in the militia.” Which was part of the ruling in the court case United States V.