Since the last column, the Supreme Court has passed down its judgment on the McDonald v. Chicago case. Even though this historic event has created the potential for landmark decisions in Arkansas, some gun people and state officials in this great state believe the McDonald decision will have no affect on existing gun laws. I strongly disagree.
Arkansas has always had right to keep and bear arms under the Arkansas Constitution, but this right has always been hindered by Arkansas State Supreme Court rulings stating this right pertained only to weapons used by the militia.
But to prohibit the citizen from wearing or carrying a war arm, except upon his own premises or when on a journey traveling through the country with baggage, or when acting as or in aid of an officer, is an unwarranted restriction upon his constitutional right to keep and bear arms.If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege.~ Arkansas State Supreme Court in Wilson v. State of Arkansas (1878)
The U.S. Supreme Court decided in the Heller case the Second Amendment pertained not only to the militia, but guaranteed the people’s right to self-defense and was an individual right. This individual right was not extended to the separate states, however, until the Second Amendment was incorporated into the Fourteenth Amendment by McDonald. The Supreme Court of the U.S. has now said the people of Arkansas have the individual right to not only keep arms, they have the individual right to bear arms. Possessing and carrying firearms is now a basic, fundamental right in Arkansas, protected by both the Second Amendment and the Constitution of Arkansas.
The ban against the open carry of handguns (Arkansas law 5-73-120) in this state is now unconstitutional.
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Comments
And don't forget one of the best parts: the definition of what is Militia.
Then and now.
Ditto for Illinois
Your dam right! Open Carry is legal and not a dam thing they can do about it!!!
I couldn't agree more. But I am struck speechless at the number of pro-gun authors and lawyers who seem not to have read either the Heller or McDonald opinions before hitting the interview circuit.
On the PBS Newshour Paul Helmke of the Brady Bunch wiped the floor with the NRA's Wayne LaPierre.
John Lott in an interview he gave with Capitol Weekly said " the issue of “bearing” arms did come up in the trial - with Justice Antonin Scalia saying at one point that the right to “bear” implied a right to “carry,”..."
It more than came up at trial, most of the Heller decision concerned itself with the question of carrying weapons outside of the home.
These weren't two isolated cases. It seems I can't read an article on Heller and McDonald where the "pro-gun" spokesman has done his homework.
I to believe we have the right of open carry and that that 2 amendment says so. But here in arkansas no one has had the guts to challenge the government on it nor can most people here afford the expense of attorney fees to fight the charges brought against them .When questioning the constitutional supreme coudrt rulings on same in other states and venues. we have a group here to pursue this but they are hard to reach and do not try to reach people other than in western arkansas. hey guys we live in south/central/ northern ar as well don't leave us out.;
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