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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsUnanimous Supreme Court protects the 2nd Amendment.
In an 8-0 decision the Supreme Count threw out a ruing by Massachusetts saying stun guns were not protected by the 2nd amendment.
Today, in Caetano v. Massachusetts, the Supreme Court vacated a decision by the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts that had concluded that the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms does not apply to stun guns. The Courts per curiam opinion scolded the Massachusetts court for its failure to apply the proper legal tests under D.C. v. Heller and McDonald v. Chicago, and quite rightly so. The court did not reach the ultimate question of whether stun guns constitute arms for Second Amendment purposes, however, instead vacating and remanding the state court opinion.
The Courts per curiam opinion is brief and biting. Here it is:
The Court has held that the Second Amendment extends, prima facie, to all instruments that constitute bearable arms, even those that were not in existence at the time of the founding, District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U. S. 570, 582 (2008), and that this Second Amendment right is fully applicable to the States, McDonald v. Chicago, 561 U. S. 742, 750 (2010). In this case, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts upheld a Massachusetts law prohibiting the possession of stun guns after examining whether a stun gun is the type of weapon contemplated by Congress in 1789 as being protected by the Second Amendment. 470 Mass. 774, 777, 26 N. E. 3d 688, 691 (2015).
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2016/03/21/supreme-court-zaps-massachusetts-stun-gun-opinion/
Lizzie Poppet
(10,164 posts)When every member of the Court, regardless of political affiliation, votes the same way, it's a pretty good indication that the case was a legal slam-dunk.
HassleCat
(6,409 posts)Too many courts side with the cops in wanting the general public to have no defense against criminals. They take away pepper spray, stun guns, tazers, etc. These are non-lethal weapons, and the cops should be happy when citizens carry these instead of lethal firearms.