Last summer, the U. S. Supreme Court confirmed that the Second Amendment meant exactly what it said: the people have a right to keep and bear arms, and that right “shall not be infringed” –  with Justice Scalia explaining that “it is not the role of this Court to pronounce the Second Amendment extinct.”  Good point!  (Heller v. District of Columbia)  But while Heller was historic, it addressed only federal infringement, leaving the question about whether the Second Amendment protects us from state infringement, such as local gun bans, up to the various appellate courts.  The appellate courts have responded, but with more conflict than consensus.

On Wednesday, June 3^rd, 2009, the National Rifle Association filed a petition for certiorari to the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of NRA v. Chicago. The NRA strongly disagrees with the June 2^nd decision issued by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, holding that the Second Amendment does not apply to state and local governments.

“The Seventh Circuit got it wrong. As the Supreme Court said in last year's landmark Heller decision, the Second Amendment is an individual right that ‘belongs to all Americans'. Therefore, we are taking our case to the highest court in the land,” said Chris W. Cox, NRA chief lobbyist. “The Seventh Circuit claimed it was bound by precedent from previous decisions. However, it should have followed the lead of the recent Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision in Nordyke v. Alameda County, which found that those cases don't prevent the Second Amendment from applying to the states through the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.”