Excellent 2A News!

A divided 3-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals held today that the 2A right to bear arms is an individual right, independent of one's militia status. Duh! Who knows if this ruling will stand, or be overturned en banc, or make it all the way to the Supreme Court. If it goes to SCOTUS, the 1939 Miller precedent in favor of individual ownership of military type weapons will weigh heavily.

Here's what the DC court said, in striking down some of DC's onerous gun laws:

To summarize, we conclude that the Second Amendment protects an individual right
to keep and bear arms. That right existed prior to the formation of the new
government under the Constitution and was premised on the private use of arms
for activities such as hunting and self-defense, the latter being understood as
resistance to either private lawlessness or the depredations of a tyrannical
government (or a threat from abroad). In addition, the right to keep and bear
arms had the important and salutary civic purpose of helping to preserve the
citizen militia. The civic purpose was also a political expedient for the
Federalists in the First Congress as it served, in part, to placate their
Antifederalist opponents. The individual right facilitated militia service by
ensuring that citizens would not be barred from keeping the arms they would need
when called forth for militia duty. Despite the importance of the Second
Amendment's civic purpose, however, the activities it protects are not limited
to militia service, nor is an individual's enjoyment of the right contingent
upon his or her continued or intermittent enrollment in the militia.

I love the smell of a judicial opinion with a clue. It's the smell . . . of . . . LIBERTY!

Click here for the full opinion.