Americans have no right to self-defense or handguns say four of nine Supreme Court Justices
Americans have no right to self-defense or gun ownership, according to four of nine of the U.S. Supreme Court Justices. They say there is no "specific untouchable right to keep guns in the house to shoot burglars".
That is what Justices John Paul Stevens and Stephen G. Breyer wrote with two others agreeing in the dissenting opinion in the District of Columbia versus Heller. U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia case number 07-290.
Heller was the first Supreme Court case to rule that the Second Amendment protects a person's right to have guns for self-defense. In the same opinion, the court also ruled that guns and gun ownership have limits and remains subject to regulation.
Americans "should demand a repeal of the Second Amendment", said Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens on Tuesday:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/27/opinion/john-paul-stevens-repeal-second-amendment.html
Justice Stevens is pictured above, left, receiving a Presidential Medal of Honor from President Barack Hussein Obama. Stevens retired from the court in 2010. Justice Breyer is still on the Supreme Court.
One more vote on the Supreme Court and Americans will lose their Second Amendment right to have guns to defend themselves.
Justice Breyer's opinion in Heller against handguns and the right to self-defense starts at Page 114 here:
https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/07pdf/07-290.pdf
"The majority, relying upon its view that the Second Amendment seeks to protect a right of personal self-defense, holds that this law violates that Amendment. In my view, it does not", said Justice Breyer. "The protection the (Second) Amendment provides is not absolute."
On Page 116, Justice Breyer writes:
"The right protected by the Second Amendment is not absolute, but instead is subject to government regulation."
"I shall not assume that the Amendment contains a specific untouchable right to keep guns in the house to shoot burglars."
On Pages 127 through 137, Justice Breyer said that:
". . .handguns are illegal" and no one can "prove that handgun possession diminishes crime or that handgun bans are ineffective."
Page 137, Justice Breyer said that anti-gun laws in Washington, D.C. have "indeed had positive lifesaving effects."
On Page 156, Justice Breyer said there is:
"... no right to keep a hand gun to protect school children either" and that “laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools" is constitutional.
"In my view, there simply is no untouchable constitutional right guaranteed by the Second Amendment to keep loaded handguns in the house in crime-ridden areas."
President George Bush, left, with Justice John Stevens, in bow tie.
Justice Stephen G. Breyer
For an opposing view of Justice Breyer's views, please link to: