Wichitopekington

Schodorf

State Sen. and 4th District congressional candidate Jean Schodorf, R-Wichita, has joined a friend-of-the-court brief urging the Supreme Court to declare the right to own weapons as an individual right nationwide.

“The Second Amendment of the Bill of Rights clearly authorizes and supports the rights of the individual in keeping and bearing arms,” Schodorf, R-Wichita, said in a written statement. “This legal brief encourages the United States Supreme Court to take the opportunity … to reinforce individual freedoms, like the right to bear arms, guaranteed to all Americans.”

The Second Amendment reads, in full: “A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.”

Through the years, courts skirted the issue of whether the amendment guarantees an individual right or can only be exercised in conjunction with a state militia.

But in the 2008 case, the Supreme Court ruled that individuals have the right to bear arms in the District of Columbia, striking down a city ordinance that essentially banned handguns and assault-style weapons and required rifles and shotguns to be stored disassembled or secured with trigger locks.

Technically, the decision overturning the ordinance only applies to D.C., a federal reserve.

A test case to extend the ruling’s provisions to the states, McDonald v. Chicago, is currently before the court.