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[CTRL] Showdown looming on right to own guns / Assault weapons ban upheld, putting court at odds with Ashcroft
- From: Euphorian
- Subject: [CTRL] Showdown looming on right to own guns / Assault weapons ban upheld, putting court at odds with Ashcroft
- Date: Sat, 07 Dec 2002 14:29:58 -0800
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http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2002/12/06/MN211218.DTL
www.sfgate.com Return to regular view
Showdown looming on right to own guns
Assault weapons ban upheld, putting court at odds with Ashcroft
Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer
Friday, December 6, 2002
©2002 San Francisco Chronicle.
URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2002/12/06/MN211218.DTL
A federal appeals court upheld California's ban on military-style assault weapons
Thursday,
ruling that individuals have no constitutional right to keep and bear arms.
The Constitution's Second Amendment preserves only the right of states to organize and
maintain militias, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled in a
3-0
decision.
The ruling put the court at odds with the Bush administration and a decision last year
by a
federal appeals court in New Orleans.
The amendment "was adopted to ensure that effective state militias would be maintained,
thus preserving the people's right to bear arms," wrote Judge Stephen Reinhardt. "The
amendment was not adopted in order to afford rights to individuals with respect to
private
gun ownership or possession."
STAGE SET FOR HIGH COURT ACTION
The ruling paves the way for the controversial issue to be addressed by the nation's
highest
court, which has not touched the topic since 1939.
"When you have something like the Ninth Circuit, the largest judicial federal circuit
in the
country, coming out with a ruling like this, it means we're within a couple years of
it coming
before the Supreme Court," said Peter Keane, dean of the Golden Gate University Law
School. "Because it's a hot issue, the Supreme Court hasn't wanted to deal with it."
The state Legislature passed the nation's most sweeping assault weapons ban in 1989,
outlawing 75 high-powered weapons that have rapid-fire capabilities. The ban was
expanded in 1999 to include copycat weapons with similar features.
The original version was upheld by the state Supreme Court in 2000, when it was
challenged by a group of gun rights activists who said the ban violated the Second
Amendment, the Equal Protection Clause and several other constitutional provisions.
Reinhardt said he concluded that the Second Amendment cannot be used to strike down the
ban after a lengthy analysis of the amendment's history and text. The 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."
His interpretation of the amendment's intent matched that of the federal government's
before Attorney General John Ashcroft wrote a letter to the National Rifle Association
in
May. In the letter, Ashcroft declared that the Second Amendment protected the
individual
right to bear arms. The Justice Department took that position formally in a U.S.
Supreme
Court filing a year later, saying the right was subject to "reasonable restrictions"
on certain
types of weapons and categories of owners.
Ashcroft's views were endorsed by a federal appeals court in New Orleans in October
2001.
Despite concluding that the Constitution protected an individual's right to bear arms,
the
court upheld a federal law banning gun possession by people under restraining orders
for
domestic violence.
Because the issue has become so debated, Reinhardt chose to address it with a
comprehensive opinion instead of relying on a similar decision rendered by the court
six
years ago.
Matthew Nosanchuk, senior litigation counsel for the Violence Policy Center in
Washington,
told the Los Angeles Times that the 86-page ruling was one of the most comprehensive
ever written on the Second Amendment.
"This is a very important contribution that should drive a stake through the heart of
the
individual rights position," Nosanchuk said.
RULING REJECTS 9 CHALLENGES
In Thursday's decision, Reinhardt expressly disagreed with the Second Amendment
interpretations by Ashcroft and the New Orleans court. He also noted that the San
Francisco
court, which oversees federal courts in nine Western states, had ruled in 1996 that the
Constitution does not protect individual gun ownership.
The ruling rejected challenges to the law by nine gun owners. The court then went a
step
further and broadened the law by striking down an exemption that allowed retired police
officers to own assault weapons, ruling that it served no public purpose.
The NRA expressed disappointment with the ruling.
"For 131 years, we've been standing steadfastly to protect the freedoms of all law-
abiding
Americans and stand steadfastly that the Second Amendment is an individual right and
will
continue to do so," spokesman Andrew Arulanandam said.
Chronicle news services contributed to this report. / E-mail Bob Egelko at
begelko@sfchronicle.com.
©2002 San Francisco Chronicle. Page A - 1
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- [CTRL] Showdown looming on right to own guns / Assault weapons ban upheld, putting court at odds with Ashcroft, Euphorian