AAPL Landmark - Gun Ownership Flashcards
Did the District of Columbia’s total prohibition of the possession of handguns violate the Second Amendment?
Yes.
District of Columbia v. Heller (2008).
Does the Second Amendment, via the Fourteenth, apply to the states, in order to protect a citizen’s right to bear firearms for lawful purposes?
Yes.
McDonald v. City of Chicago (2010).
Does the 2nd Amendment forbid Congress from permanently prohibiting firearm possession by currently healthy individuals who were previously civilly committed to a psychiatric hospital?
Maybe
Tyler v. Hillsdale Co. Sheriff’s Department (2016).
Michigan man is psychiatrically hospitalized and a decade later wants to buy a gun but is denied.
The Court used the means-end test of intermediate scrutiny to assess the constitutional validity of section 922(g)(4). This test required the government’s stated objective to be “significant, substantial, or important” and required a reasonable fit between this objective and the challenged regulation. The government’s objectives for the ban were to reduce crime and prevent suicide. The Court acknowledged that these objectives were “important”, but found that the government had not shown that the scope of section 922(g)(4) was in proportion to the interest served. The government provided evidence including studies showing that individuals who had been committed to a mental health facility had a much higher suicide risk. The Court found that this evidence focussed solely on the risk posed by those presently mentally ill and recently committed. The government therefore failed to provide sufficient evidence of the continuous risk of owing a gun to people previously committed to a mental health facility to justify a lifetime ban.
Does Florida’s ban on doctors’ discussing the risks of gun ownership with patients violate the doctors’ First Amendment right to free speech?
No.
Wollschlaeger v. Governor of Florida (2017).
