BELLEVUE, WA – The Second Amendment Foundation today appealed its lawsuit against the City of Chicago’s handgun ban to the United States Supreme Court.
The case, which began as McDonald v. City of Chicago and is now consolidated with a similar lawsuit filed by the National Rifle Association, was filed last year within an hour of the Supreme Court’s landmark Second Amendment ruling in District of Columbia v. Dick Anthony Heller.
In the Chicago case – which can be followed at www.chicagoguncase.com – SAF is asking the Supreme Court for a definitive ruling that the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms is incorporated against the states by the Fourteenth Amendment’s Privileges or Immunities or Due Process clauses. Earlier this year, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled that the Second Amendment is incorporated as a limit on state and local governments.
“We know we are going to win this case,” said SAF founder Alan M. Gottlieb. “States should not be able to take away rights guaranteed by the federal constitution.”
“Like any other citizen,” said plaintiff Otis McDonald, “I would like to be able to protect myself from drug dealers and gang bangers who make it almost impossible to even go to the grocery store.”
A Seventh Circuit Appeals Court panel ruled against the plaintiffs recently based on a century-old case, prompting this appeal. SAF is joined in its lawsuit by the Illinois State Rifle Association and four Chicago residents. SAF and ISRA are represented by attorney Alan Gura of Virginia, who argued the Heller case before the Supreme Court, and Chicago attorney David G. Sigale.
“The only reason we have not already won,” Gottlieb stated, “is that the lower courts have felt bound by antiquated precedents and are waiting for the Supreme Court to issue a ruling that respects the Second Amendment as a normal part of the Bill of Rights.”