Thursday, August 7, 2008

New York gun laws, post-Heller

Here's another article on New York gun laws and the possible impact of the Supreme Court's Second Amendment ruling:
After Rashawn Handsome of Brooklyn was arrested for keeping three handguns in a sneaker box in his apartment -- without any license for them -- his Legal Aid attorney argued that Handsome had a right to bear arms under the Second Amendment of the Constitution. As we reported last year, a Criminal Court judge emphatically disagreed. The guarantee of the right to bear arms, Judge Michael Gerstein said, referred to state militias. No one, the judge reasoned, intended for every individual to "own firearms for their private, civilian use."

But now the Supreme Court has spoken on this issue -- in a case involving the District of Columbia's restrictions on guns. Could Handsome and his Legal Aid Society attorney have been right?

Article here. Again, the article does not mention the incorporation issue. Perhaps the author, who is listed as a NY State Supreme Court judge (for those unfamiliar with the New York legal system, the NYS Supreme Court is their trial level court) believes that the Second Amendment will be incorporated against the states?

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