High Noon for The Second Amendment

Two years ago this month, the United States Supreme Court held that the Second Amendment to the Bill of Rights guarantees the right to carry a weapon for the purpose of self-defense when it applied its landmark decision from 2008 to all states and local governments. 

With the exception of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in California, the Federal Courts of Appeals have either ducked the question as to whether or not the Second Amendment guarantees a right to carry a loaded firearm in public for the purpose of self-defense or if it instead applies only to one's home. 

In just a few months we should have an answer to that question from three more Circuit Courts; the 1st, the 7th and the 10th. The Seventh and Tenth Circuit Court are likely to hold that the Supreme Court meant what it said. We have a right to openly carry a loaded firearm in non-sensitive public places for the purpose of self-defense. 

The three judge panel in the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals oral arguments last week indicated that they were going to strike down Illinois' ban on carrying loaded firearms in public. The judges said that it was silly for the state to argue that when the Founding Fathers wrote the Second Amendment they intended it to mean that one only has the right to march around his living room with a musket.  

In Colorado the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals said that it was bound by the three US Supreme Court decisions which held that when carrying a firearm in public the constitutionally protected manner of carry is Open Carry. 

In Boston, the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals made certain to ask Alan Gura, the lawyer for the Second Amendment Foundation if he was arguing that there was a right for his client to carry a handgun concealed? Mr. Gura sheepishly agreed that his was an Open Carry case. Mr. Gura was thoroughly thrashed by the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in March when he and the lawyer for the National Rifle Association argued that states may ban Open Carry if they wished. 

Three times the US Supreme Court has held that Open Carry is the lawful manner of carrying a firearm in public. The NRA and SAF have lost every lawsuit where they made the argument that states may ban Open Carry in their forlorn attempt to convince Federal judges that the US Supreme Court really didn't mean what it said about people who wish to carry a concealed weapon.  

"[I]n State v. Chandler, 5 La. Ann. 489, 490 (1850), the Louisiana Supreme Court held that citizens had a right to carry arms openly: “This is the right guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States, and which is calculated to incite men to a manly and noble defence of themselves, if necessary, and of their country, without any tendency to secret advantages and unmanly assassinations.”"  - Justice Scalia writing for the majority in District of Columia v. Heller (2008)