Ensign: Supreme Court Ruling Affirms Second Amendment As Individual Right

Statement

Senator John Ensign released the following statement on today's Supreme Court ruling guaranteeing the Second Amendment as an individual right:

"For years, a fundamental right given to every American by our Founding Fathers and guaranteed in the Constitution has been in peril," said Ensign. "Federal, state and local governments have passed laws that deny many law-abiding Americans their Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. Today's Supreme Court ruling clearly upholds the intent of our Founding Fathers in stating that the Second Amendment is an individual right that trumps state and local laws that ban firearms. As the confirmation hearings for Elena Kagan for Supreme Court Justice begin today in the Senate, decisions such as McDonald remind us that we must continue to appoint judges committed to abiding by the words of the Constitution, free of activist intentions.

The Supreme Court ruled today in McDonald v. Chicago that the Constitution's "right to keep and bear arms" applies nationwide as a restraint on the ability of federal, state and local governments to substantially limit its reach.

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