The Man Who Got the Second Amendment Applied to States and Localities
Brian Doherty
Reason.com
4/6/2014
Otis McDonald, the American hero who showed physical, emotional, and political braveness in his role as lead plaintiff in the groundbreaking 2010 Supreme Court case McDonald v. Chicago had died at age 80, as reported by his hometown paper the Chicago Tribune.
McDonald saw his Chicago neighborhood plummeting in quality of life, the very safety of himself and his neighbors sometimes threatened by people who showed little respect for other people’s life or safety.
He thought it was unjust that his city essentially barred him and his neighbors from owning the most common tool of self-protection, the handgun.
In the wake of the 2008 Heller decision (which I wrote a book about, Gun Control on Trial), which prohibited the federal government from violating our Second Amendment right to own commonly used weapons for self-defense in the home, Mr. McDonald became lead plaintiff in a case that went to the Supreme Court in 2010, challenging the city of Chicago’s ban on handgun ownership.
McDonald won and the right to self-defense in the home via the Second Amendment was applied to the states and localities via the 14th Amendment…
The article continues at Reason.com
Also at the site, Otis McDonald, Civil Rights Hero and Second Amendment Champion, 1933-2014
…McDonald v. Chicago was a civil rights triumph in every sense of the term. At its heart, the case dealt with the original meaning of the 14th Amendment, the constitutional safeguard enacted in 1868 to wipe away the last traces of slavery, particularly the noxious “Black Codes” designed by the former Confederates to prevent the freedmen from owning property, moving freely, and keeping and bearing arms for self-defense.
The city of Chicago rejected that original meaning and declared instead that state and local governments should be free to restrict gun ownership as they saw fit…
Related: Gallup: Illinois Residents Least Trusting of Their State Government. North Dakota, Wyoming, and Utah rank at the top
Update: Holder: We Want to Explore Gun Tracking Bracelets (video). DOJ requesting $2 million for ‘Gun Safety Technology’ grants.
Attorney General Eric Holder said on Friday that gun tracking bracelets are something the Justice Department (DOJ) wants to “explore” as part of its gun control efforts.
When discussing gun violence prevention programs within the DOJ, Holder told a House appropriations subcommittee that his agency is looking into technological innovations…
Update 2: Gun advocates credit new concealed carry laws for sharp drop in Chicago murder rate.
Chicago police are reporting that the murder rate for the first quarter of the year is the lowest it’s been in more than 50 years…
