SCOTUS Declines to Hear Gun Case
The United States Supreme Court declined to take up a case from the Third Circuit that would offer some needed clarification to a United States citizen's civil right to bear arms.
Drake v. Jerejian is a New Jersey law mandating that Garden State residents demonstrate a “justifiable need” to carry a handgun in public. While any state resident can apply for a handgun permit, as few as two out of every 10,000 are approved, with local officials given wide latitude to reject applications despite the fact that state law spells out “justifiable need” as “specific threats or previous attacks which demonstrate a special danger to the applicant’s life that cannot be avoided by means other than by issuance of a permit to carry a handgun.”
The court went on to say that because New Jersey’s law predated the Heller decision, “New Jersey’s legislators could not have known that they were burdening Second Amendment conduct.”
“Americans are not required to justify their need to exercise a fundamental right. If the government can force you to provide a reason to exercise your right, then it’s no longer a right.” —Alan Gura
With the above quote from Alan Gura in mind, the United States Supreme Court seems to disagree with Gura, and apparently SCOTUS thinks that infringing on a citizen's civil rights is OK as long as the infringement is based on stare decisis.
We still have a ways to go!
/fl