Case Study: District Of Columbia Vs. Heller

District of Columbia vs. Heller District of Columbia vs. Heller was a groundbreaking case by the Supreme Court on the issue of an individuals’ right to possess a firearm. The two parties in the case were Dick Anthony Heller, the plaintiff and District of Columbia, the defendant. The issue in the case was: Does the District of Columbia’s prohibition on the possession of usable handguns in the home violate the 2nd Amendment? The background of this case is: The District of Columbia passes a law regarding the possession of handguns, which was requiring license for all handguns, and requiring all handguns to be unloaded and the trigger being sealed. This law made a group of private gun holders to file a suit, claiming the laws violated their second amendment right to hold guns. The second amendment has involvement in this case, as the Second Amendment shields an individual right to own a firearm unrelated with service in a militia, and to practice that firearm for habitually lawful purposes, such as …show more content…
The procedural history of this case was very interesting as in the first trail that happened in Washington D.C. at the federal court refused to grant Heller, plaintiff the right to possess the gun, because the court stated that the second amendment only applies to the militias such as the National Guard. Later, the final decision was issued on June 26, 2008 favoring Heller with 5-4 decision that determined that handguns are "arms" for the purposes of the Second Amendment. The Supreme Court of United States struck down the Firearm Law of 1975 as unconstitutional regarding the decision. The decision did not overturn any previous court decisions. This was the first case ever regarding the second the amendment and how