I post below the contents of a message that the Illinois State Rifle Association is sending to people on its email distribution list.
ALERT – Supreme Court Case on Chicago Handgun Ban
Yesterday the City of Chicago filed their brief in response in the US Supreme Court case brought by the Illinois State Rifle Association. The case, McDonald v Chicago, seeks to overturn Chicago’s handgun ban and punitive registration process.
This is the most important case in U.S. history concerning the Second Amendment and it is the ISRA’s case. Can state and local governments take away your Second Amendment Rights? Or is the Right to Keep and Bear Arms so fundamental that it is protected by being incorporated against the states through the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution? Without going into a bunch of legal language, Chicago’s brief is their attempt make sure that the handgun ban lives on.
These are the next steps in this case:
1. Our reply to what Chicago just submitted is due January 29.
2. Oral Arguments in the case have been scheduled for March 2.
3. The court is expected to deliver a decision near the end of June.
The outcome of this case is expected to affect the status of the Second Amendment across the nation. If we win, it does not mean that the fight is over, it means that next phase of the fight has begun.
The City of Chicago is using tax dollars pay for the defense in this case, in order to keep preventing its residents being able to have effective self-defense at home. Of course, no tax payer monies are being used to defend your Second Amendment rights! The legal effort behind the McDonald case is paid for privately.
The ISRA needs your support and your contributions to keep this case, and the inevitable follow-up cases, moving forward.
Now is the time. If you are an ISRA member, we need your continued support. Please make a donation on-line here, or over the phone at 815-635-3198. If you would like to mail or fax a donation, we have a printable form here [pdf].
Now is the time. If you’re not an ISRA member, join NOW and ride with us into history. You’ll be able to say “I was an ISRA member when WE overthrew the Chicago handgun ban and forever changed the gun control debate!” You can join on-line, or over the phone at 815-635-3198. You can download a printable application form here [pdf].
Post this alert to all internet blogs and bulletin boards to which you belong. Also, pass this alert on to your gun owning friends and fellow sporting club members. Ask them to forward this alert to their friend far and wide. Although the suit targets the local ordinance in Chicago, the implications of incorporation of the 2nd Amendment are national in scope.
(Note that I edited some of the links in the message to make them easier to use, but the content is unchanged.)
If State law is senior to the Constitution must it not also be senior to all Federal law which, after all, must be Constitutional? If this is the case can’t States pretty much ignore Washington D.C.? If the Second Amendment doesn’t hold, clearly, there is no reason any other Ammendments should be upheld is there? Sounds like we’re headed to the 1860s all over again.