Texas Law Shield was watching closely last week to see whether the U.S. Supreme Court would hear a pair of 2nd Amendment appeals lodged by the National Rifle Association.
The cases were NRA vs. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and NRA vs. McCraw, both of which started in Texas and concerned the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding adults between the ages of 18 and 21.
But after considering the appeals for several weeks, the court said without comment on Feb. 24 the appeals would not be heard.
In NRA v BATFE, the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a federal law that prohibits federally licensed firearm dealers (FFLs) from selling handguns to people under age 21.
The NRA’s McCraw case asked the Court to consider the validity of Texas’s prohibition on adults 18-21 years old publicly carrying licensed firearms. The Texas attorney general argued successfully that most states have similar age limits on the public carrying of guns by those younger than 21.
Texas Law Shield was particularly interested in a BATFE brief filed by former U.S. Solicitor Gen. Paul D. Clement on behalf of the NRA.
Clement wrote, “This case is part of a pervasive pattern of stubborn resistance to this court’s holding that the Second Amendment secures a right that is not just individual, but fundamental…. The decision below is illustrative of the efforts of lower courts to limit Heller and McDonald to their facts while ignoring the clear import of their reasoning.”
He argued that gun owners are facing “massive resistance” in the courts when they assert their rights under the 2nd Amendment.
That “massive resistance” seems to extend all the way to the top. The justices have refused at least a half-dozen times to grant review of new cases seeking to expand the Second Amendment right beyond the home.
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