Headed to the big boys?
A precedent for getting the second amendment into the Supreme Court:
In 2001, in the case of U.S. v. Emerson, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals (Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi) ruled that firearms ownership is an individual right, subject to certain reasonable restrictions. This ruling was handed down a few months after Attorney General, John Ashcroft, issued a public statement announcing that the Second Amendment clearly protects the right of individual(s) to keep and bear arms. A writ of certiorari for a Supreme Court hearing was denied for this case.
In 2002, in the case of Silveira v. Lockyer, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Arizona, Alaska, and Hawaii) rendered a ruling that the Second Amendment does NOT apply to individuals.
We now have a situation where the law of the land in the Fifth Circuit is diametrically opposed to the law in the Ninth Circuit. Considering that this is a federal Bill of Rights issue, it is in the best interest of our nation for the Supreme Court to render a final ruling that applies to all.
