Rulings on Gun Rights Head Back to Supreme Court

Recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions stating that the Second Amendment guarantees individuals the right to own guns have been interpreted narrowly in lower courts. Those decisions are likely to lead to another round at the high court, The Washington Post reported.

As a result of the Supreme Court’s decisions in District of Columbia v. Heller and McDonald v. Chicago, the anti-gun Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence reports that about two court challenges a week have been filed. Furthermore, the Brady Center is happy with the lower court results.

“Three years and more than 400 legal challenges later, courts — so far — have held that the Supreme Court’s ruling in Heller was narrow and limited, and that the Second Amendment does not interfere with the people’s right to enact legislation protecting families and communities from gun violence,” the Post quoted a report from the center titled “Hollow Victory?” as saying.

Two cases are shaping up as the next Supreme Court challenges. Charles Williams is challenging his 2008 conviction in Prince George’s County, Md., of violating the state’s ban on wearing, carrying or transporting a gun without a permit, and Sean Masciandaro, of Woodbridge, Va., is challenging his conviction of violating a ban on having a loaded firearm in a vehicle on national parkland, the Post reported.

In his petition to the Supreme Court, Masciandaro argues, “If there is a Second Amendment right outside the home, it surely applies to law-abiding citizens carrying handguns for self-defense while traveling on public highways.”