On Monday, the Supreme Court continued its trend of aversion on several NRA-backed appeals that would loosen gun rights. This unwillingness by the high court to expand these rights has thwarted gun rights supporters and the NRA since 2008.??The court upheld two San Francisco ordinances that mandate gun owners to keep weapons secure either by storing them in lockers, by installing trigger locks, or by holding weapons with them. [See Source]
The second measure before the court upheld the ban on hollow-point bullets that expand on impact, which the court reasoned had ” no sporting value.”
Only two Justices, Antonio Scalia and Clarence Thomas, indicated they would have heard the case. Both are widely considered to be the most conservative judges on the bench.
This ruling by the SCOTUS declining to hear gun law challenges has frustrated the NRA and its supporters since 2008.
The court has struck down challenges to the 1968 law that prohibit the sales of firearms to individuals under the age of 21, for example.?SCOTUS blog writer, Lyle Denniston, wrote in the court’s official blog that the court’s action raises
“significant new questions about how much protection the Constitution’s Second Amendment actually gives to gun owners.“
Denniston adds:
“Much of the uncertainty that has spread to courts across the country has involved the core question whether the personal right extends anywhere beyond the home. That has been the issue that the Justices have most often declined to sort out. The San Francisco case, however, sought to bring the Court back inside the home, to determine how far government could go to regulate access to a weapon there.”
