Cert Petitions Claim Second Amendment Protects Right to Carry Weapons Outside Home
The U.S. Supreme Court is being asked in two separate cases to rule that the Second Amendment protects a right to carry weapons outside the home.
Lower courts have been ruling against gun-rights advocates since a pair of Supreme Court decisions found the Second Amendment protected individuals’ right to keep guns within the home, the Washington Post reports. Two cert petitions ask the Supreme Court to extend the right.
One appeal contends reptile expert Sean Masciandaro had a right to have a loaded gun in his car trunk on national parkland. The owner of a reptile education business, Masciandaro was arrested after pulling over at a park to take a nap. His car was parked illegally.
“If there is a Second Amendment right outside the home, it surely applies to law-abiding citizens carrying handguns for self-defense while traveling on public highways,” the cert petition (PDF) says.
The second cert petition (PDF) argues Charles Williams Jr. had the right to carry a gun in his backpack while traveling to his house. Williams didn’t have a Maryland gun permit, but argues that state law is so restrictive that virtually no one can get one. He was arrested after an officer spotted him going through his backpack, then hiding the gun in the bushes.
The individual right to own a gun within a home was established in District of Columbia v. Heller. A second case, McDonald v. Chicago, found that the Second Amendment applies to state and local governments, as well as the federal government.
