Attorney General Abbott leads coalition of 38 state attorneys general to defend the Second Amendment in brief filed with U.S. Supreme Court
AUSTIN Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott today took legal action to protect Texans Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.
In a brief filed with the U.S. Supreme Court and authored by Attorney General Abbott 38 state attorneys general explain that law-abiding Americans have a fundamental right to bear arms and that local governments cannot simply disregard that right and impose an outright ban on handgun possession.
Just last year we successfully fought to have the U.S. Supreme Court confirm that Americans have an individual constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms" Attorney General Abbott said. Now the City of Chicago claims that the Supreme Courts year-old decision does not apply to local governments so cities and towns can simply ignore the Second Amendment and pass laws that disregard city residents constitutionally protected rights. In response weve built a coalition of 38 state attorneys general who reject Chicagos attempt to circumvent the Constitution and who understand that all Americans whether they live in D.C. or not have a fundamental right to keep and bear arms."
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Attorney Generals brief filed with the U.S. Supreme Court
The attorney generals brief in McDonald v. Chicago supports a legal challenge by Otis McDonald a community activist who lives in a high-crime Chicago neighborhood. McDonalds work to improve his neighborhood subjected him to violent threats from drug dealers but City of Chicago ordinances prohibit him from obtaining a handgun to protect himself.
Last year Attorney General Abbott and 31 other state attorneys general filed an amicus brief in District of Columbia v. Heller in which they urged the Supreme Court to overturn a Washington D.C. law that banned all handguns and required that rifles and shotguns be disassembled or encumbered by trigger locks at all times. In a landmark 2008 decision the Court agreed with the attorney generals position and declared the federal citys handgun ban unconstitutional holding that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to keep and bear arms.
As Attorney General Abbotts brief explains: The Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms is a critical liberty interest essential to preserving individual security and the right to self-defense." Nonetheless the City of Chicago contends that the Second Amendment does not protect citizens from municipal action that abrogates the constitution because it claims the Supreme Courts decision in the Heller case does not apply to state and local governments.
The states brief refutes that argument stating that the Constitutional protections apply to and therefore limit cities counties and other local governmental entities throughout the U.S. under the Fourteenth Amendment. Just as local governments cannot constitutionally act as laboratories for initiatives to abrogate their citizens right to free speech or their freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures nor can they nullify the fundamental right to keep and bear arms secured by the Second Amendment" the brief contends.
If Chicagos unconstitutional gun ban were allowed to stand the attorneys general explain millions of Americans will be deprived of their Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms as a result of actions by local governments such as the ordinances challenged in this case."
The states amicus brief acknowledges that some firearms regulations are permissible including in circumstances where they are necessary to prevent violent felons from owning guns.
Attorney General Abbotts brief is co-sponsored by Ohio Arkansas and Georgia. Other states that joined the brief are: Alabama Alaska Arizona Colorado Florida Idaho Indiana Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Mexico North Carolina North Dakota Oklahoma Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Utah Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin and Wyoming.
