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Supreme Court Case Essay: The Right To Bear Arms

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Logan Waldrip 5th March 14, 2018 Supreme court case essay In 1939, the court case United States vs. Miller was brought to trial it involved the second amendment right ( the right to bear arms). The case was started in the U.S state of Arkansas when two male individuals Jack Miller and Frank Layton were traveling in a vehicle down interstate commerce and were abruptly stopped. They had a sawed off double barrel 12 gauge shotgun in their possession. With them being caught they were charged by a federal district court. Miller and Jack were accused of the violation of the National firearms act (NFA) which prohibits the possession of any such shotgun with a barrel less than 18 inches long otherwise known as sawed off. Furthermore about the National Firearms act, was established in 1934 . Its purpose? Was to be the first restriction on firearms but two specific types of firearms, any such shotgun with a barrel less than 18 inches and any type of machine gun …show more content…

Government lawyers begged to differ claiming that the 2nd amendment right did not imply to the individual right it was a “collective” right. That weapons such as rifles are used as common (war) defense not to be used as self defense so therefore the rights are meant to be used for militaristic power. However the supreme court overturned the lower court's ruling and claimed that the act was actually constitutional. However the court agreed that the National Firearms Act was put in place to keep states from pre forming militias not for the meaning of taking it away from personal possession therefore the act could be misunderstood under militia services. Then again the court also agrees that even a militia is made of a group of free men that would provide their own weapon stating they were unsure of militaristic

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Summary: On April 18, 1938 Jack Miller and Frank Layton were arrested by police when they attempted to take an unregistered sawed-off double barrel shotgun from Claremore, Oklahoma to Siloam Springs, Arkansas. Transporting a firearm that has a barrel under eighteen inches over state lines is not registered and has no stamped paperwork violates the National Firearms Act of 1934. The NFA was a, "revenue act, levying a $200 transfer tax on all covered firearms"(NYU Law, 61). This was a useful tax during this time because it helped control the gangsters from acquiring machine guns(NYU Law, 61).

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This law is a clear violation of the fundamental right to keep and bear arms. The wording of the Second Amendment is clear and does not mention anything regarding regulations. We as the court must ignore the

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Scalia points out that the operative clause contains the phrase, “right of the people,” which is only used two other times in the First and Fourth Amendments. Scalia argues that all instances of this phrase have pointed towards individual rights. He goes on to state that because of this it can be presumed that the Second Amendment is meant to be interpreted as an individual right. While it is true that Miller and Heller dealt with two different types of firearms, the interpretations of the cases led to two different outcomes. In Miller, the Court stated that the firearm in question does not further the cause of a government sponsored militia, which essentially means that only those participating in a government sponsored militia are guaranteed the right to possess a firearm.

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The officer found two unlicensed firearms on two of the men. Those two men, John Terry, and Richard Chilton, were both convicted of possession of an unlicensed concealed firearm. They appealed, due to their belief that the evidence used to convict them was obtained through unreasonable search and seizure. The Ohio Supreme Court

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January 14, 1990 appearing in Parade Magazine the article ‘The Right to Bear Arms’ by Warren E. Burger, Chief Justice of the United States, discusses gun violence in America, Gun regulations, and the Constitution. In the article Burger brings to light the massacres and deaths to support his stance on gun regulations, while supporting how important guns are to the American people. He mentions in his article the difference between “Saturday night Specials” and sporting guns, the state militias, and the history of 13 original colonies to show reader’s supporting facts and statistics for why America is needing gun regulations. “Many of our large centers have up to 10 times the murder rate of all of Western Europe. In 1988, there were 9000 handgun

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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.

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He wanted to build his own well-regulated militia to combat security firms that were hired to break strikes and intimidate employees. Pressure and 400 other Germans marched through Chicago, and he was arrested for violating the state's laws against military organizations. The Supreme Court eventually ruled at the states were able to regulate and ban private militias in their state, the Supreme Court also ruled that the citizens had no right to bear arms the purposes of hunting or self-defense. In the court case United States V Miller in 1939, two bank robbers or stopped by

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Article III of the United States Constitution delineates the role of our Judicial Branch of Government to afford justice to all people. Indeed, ”To the letter of the law” leaves many in the legal system scratching their heads over their obligations to translate, as well as, deliver justice. Unfortunately, as society evolves, the parameters of any written laws may be construed differently and our judicial system is put to task in arbitrating the rights and restrictions of citizens. One such case, McDonald v. Chicago, captivated the nation in 2010 regarding the 2nd Amendment to the constitution. Clearly stated, the 2nd Amendment reads, “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed”.

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The Second Amendment states, "A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."

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He and Clark M. Neily, gathered six people to be the plaintiffs. Dick Heller a police officer that carried a hand gun all day but wasn’t allowed to have one in his home. He wanted this law to be removed. The Supreme Court overruled the local law and allowed for gun ownership and adjusted the rules for guns.

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The issue of gun rights is an everyday issue that can be argued with support either way. one of the main problems is that we as Americans have been given certain rights through the first ten amendments that are interpreted different on a daily basis. However, the Supreme Court has a history of making rulings after what the Constitution says word for word. And even though they are shadowed out by the popularized shootings and other such events there are actually news articles that aid in the support of the second amendment.

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The right to bear arms has been a controversial issue ever since James Madison established it as the second amendment of the constitution. The second amendment states, “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed” (US Const. amend. II). Those in favor of the second amendment, believe that arms are used for protection, dangerous situations, and sports.

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Heller (2008) this decision was overturned. In this landmark decision the Supreme Court ruled that “[t]he Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess a firearm unconnected with service in a militia, and to use that arm for traditionally lawful purposes, such as self-defense within the home (2-53). With this ruling the Supreme Court struck down provisions of the Firearms Control Regulations Act of 1975 which required that all firearms be kept be kept “unloaded and disassembled or bound by a trigger lock” (sec. 702). The Supreme Court held that “[t]he operative clause’s text and history demonstrate that it connotes an individual right to keep and bear arms” (District of Columbia v. Heller 2-22). In the 2010 follow-up case McDonald v. Chicago the Supreme Court found that the right of an individual to “keep and bear arms” granted by the Second Amendment is incorporated by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment (10-11, 33-34).

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According to the Second Amendment, “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” The Second Amendment specifically states that “the right of the people to keep

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Although under the Second Amendment to the Constitution it is interpreted by gun rights activists that it is deserved the right to keep and bear arms, overall, US citizens should not be allowed the right to use weapons and be in possession of guns, as it creates a dangerous society for the US and develops a fearful environment within the nation. Limitations towards the use of guns have been prevalent for a long time in US history. In the 1930s, guns and firearms were being used by gangsters and were deemed threatening to US society. Therefore, the National Firearms Act was enacted in 1934, imposing “a tax on the making and transfer of firearms defined by the Act, as well as a special (occupational) tax on persons and entities engaged in the business of importing, manufacturing, and dealing in NFA firearms” (ATF). Soon enough, help towards claiming this idea came in US v. Miller, with the idea that the Second Amendment did not actually guarantee the right to keep and possess a sawed-off shotgun (Cornell).

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