FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE :    Wednesday, January 07, 2015
CONTACT:  Sara Rabern (605)773-3215   

 
Attorney General Jackley Joins Bi-Partisan Attorney General Effort to Protect Second Amendment Rights

 
PIERRE, S.D – Attorney General Marty Jackley has joined an amicus brief, filed by the State of Nebraska in which 26 Bi-Partisan Attorneys General seek to protect Second Amendment rights.

 The brief was filed in the case of Jackson v. San Francisco in opposition of a city ordinance that required all citizens who possess handguns in their homes to disable them or to stow them away in a lock box  whenever the guns are not being physically carried on the person.

“The Second Amendment permits law-abiding citizens the fundamental right to bear arms in the defense of themselves and their families.  As Attorney General, I strongly encourage the safekeeping of firearms in the home particularly when children are present to avoid an accident. However, the government should not come into our home, dictate and enforce how to keep firearms,” said Jackley.

The brief argues that the Second Amendment protects the right to keep a “lawful firearm in the home operable for the purpose of immediate self-defense” and the ordinance makes it impractical, if not impossible, for a law abiding citizen to exercise his or her right.

The Attorneys General argue that review of the Ninth Circuit’s decision by the United States Supreme Court is critical because San Francisco’s ordinance violates the Second Amendment based on the Supreme Court’s striking of a similar trigger-lock requirement for a handgun in the home in District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S. 570 (2008). The U.S Supreme Court has recognized that the Second Amendment “elevates above all other interests the right to law-abiding, responsible citizens to use arms in defense of hearth and home.” Heller. Indeed, “individual self-defense is ‘the central component’ of the Second Amendment right.” McDonald v. City of Chicago, 561 U.S. 742, (2010). And because it is a right “fundamental to our scheme of ordering liberty,” it applies equally to states and municipalities.  McDonald.

The Attorneys General from the following states are participating: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

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