District Of Columbia V. Heller (07-290)
The court adopted a collective rights approach in this case, determining that congress could regulate a sawed-off shotgun that moved in interstate commerce under the National Firearms Act Of 1954 because the evidence didn't suggest that the shotgun "has some reasonable relationship to the preservation or efficiency of a well regulated militia".... The court than explained that the Framers included the second amendment to ensure the effectiveness of the military. This precedent stood for nearly 70 years when in 2008 the U.S. Supreme Court revisited the issue in the case. The plaintiff in Heller challenged the constitutionality of the Washington D.C. handgun ban, a statue that stood for 32 years. Many considered the statue the most stringent in the nation. In a 5-4 decision, the court meticulously detailing the history and tradition of the Second Amendment at the time of the constitutional convention, proclaimed that the Second Amendment established an individual right for U.S. citizens to possess firearms and struck down the D.C. Handgun Ban as violative of that right.
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