How has the Supreme Court interpreted the Second Amendment?
The Second Amendment to the United States Constitution states that “a well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.” This amendment has been interpreted differently by the United States Supreme Court over the years. In 2008, the Supreme Court decided in a 5-4 ruling on District of Columbia v. Heller that the Second Amendment protected an individual’s right to possess and use firearms for self-defense. This decision was the first time the court had ruled that the Second Amendment provided an individual right to bear arms. In the subsequent 2010 ruling of McDonald v. City of Chicago, the Court struck down a Chicago ordinance banning handgun possession in the home. This ruling applied the Second Amendment protections from the Heller decision to states as well as federally recognized territories. In 2015, in Caetano v. Massachusetts, the Court ruled that a Massachusetts ban on stun guns violated the Second Amendment. The Court maintained that the Second Amendment protects the rights to keep and bear arms, and that stun guns are part of a long history of firearms used for self-defense. The interpretation of the Second Amendment by the Supreme Court is ongoing and evolving as it considers additional cases. North Carolina has been subject to a number of court rulings related to the Second Amendment. In 2017, a federal court in North Carolina declared the state’s ban on concealed carry permits unconstitutional. In a separate ruling, the same court struck down a state law that prohibited the carrying of weapons by individuals at protests.
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