Huh. Somehow I missed this story earlier:
I wonder if we could get something like this through in Massachusetts.
By JEANNINE KORANDA
The Wichita Eagle
Next year, Kansans will vote whether to change the state constitution to guarantee individual gun rights.
“It is the law of the land today in every state. They (supporters) would like to make sure it stays that way in Kansas,” said Senate Majority Leader Derek Schmidt, an Independence Republican.
Supporters of a resolution that passed the House and Senate say the move is needed in case the U.S. Supreme Court ever decides that the Second Amendment does not protect individual gun ownership. In 2008, the court ruled that the Bill of Rights covers an individual’s right to own firearms.
Before that Supreme Court decision, some lower courts had ruled that the intent of the Second Amendment was to tie the right of gun possession to militia service, such as a state National Guard unit, rather than an individual’s right to own a gun.
Scott Vogel, spokesman for Freedom States Alliance, called the fear that the courts or the current presidential administration might take away people’s guns “a phantom issue” and said lawmakers would have been better off focusing on more pressing issues.
The alliance works with grassroots organizations across the country to prevent gun violence.
“There is no wisdom that somehow people are not going to be able to get a gun. I mean, this is America,” Vogel said.
Sen. Mike Petersen, a Wichita Republican and one of the resolution’s top supporters, said he was surprised to learn that Kansas did not protect individual gun owner rights.
“I think a lot of voters thought that they already had this right, but they don’t,” he said.
Currently, the Kansas Constitution guarantees those rights for “the people.”
A 1905 Kansas Supreme Court decision said that gun ownership is a collective, not an individual, right. The proposed amendment would give the right to each person.
more here:
http://www.kansascity.com/115/story/1113251.html
I wonder if we could get something like this through in Massachusetts.