Ninth Circuit Rules 2nd Amendment Incorporated to States

BELLEVUE, Wash., April 20 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Second Amendment
Foundation today applauded the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San
Francisco for ruling that the Second Amendment is incorporated against the
states and local governments.

The majority opinion was written by Judge Diarmuid F. O'Scannlain, with a
concurring opinion from Judge Ronald M. Gould, who wrote, "The right to bear
arms is a bulwark against external invasion...That we have a lawfully armed
populace adds a measure of security for all of us and makes it less likely
that a band of terrorists could make headway in an attack on any community
before more professional forces arrived."

Although the court found against the plaintiffs in the case of Nordyke v. King
- Russell and Sallie Nordyke, operators of a gun show in Alameda County, CA -
the court acknowledged that its earlier position that the Second Amendment
protected only a collective right of states has been overruled by the Supreme
Court's 2008 historic ruling in District of Columbia v. Dick Anthony Heller.
That was the case in which the high court ruled that the Second Amendment
protects an individual civil right to keep and bear arms.

"This is a great victory for advancement of the fundamental individual right
of American citizens to own firearms," said SAF founder Alan Gottlieb. "The
Ninth Circuit panel has acknowledged that the Heller ruling abrogated its
earlier position on the Second Amendment, and it further clarified that the
Second Amendment is incorporated to the states through the Fourteenth
Amendment through the due process clause."

SAF attorney Alan Gura, who successfully argued the Heller case before the
Supreme Court in March 2008, filed an amicus brief in the Nordyke case. The
Nordykes sued when Alameda County banned gun shows at the county fairgrounds
by making it illegal to bring or possess firearms or ammunition on county
property.

"The Heller ruling in 2008 was the first critical step toward full restoration
of the individual citizen's right to keep and bear arms to its rightful
position as a cornerstone of the Bill of Rights," Gottlieb observed. "This
victory in the Ninth Circuit not only reinforces the Heller ruling, it expands
upon it."

The Second Amendment Foundation (www.saf.org) is the nation's oldest and
largest tax-exempt education, research, publishing and legal action group
focusing on the Constitutional right and heritage to privately own and possess
firearms. Founded in 1974, The Foundation has grown to more than 600,000
members and supporters and conducts many programs designed to better inform
the public about the consequences of gun control.

SOURCE Second Amendment Foundation

Alan Gottlieb of the Second Amendment Foundation, +1-425-454-7012