Side Lights - 1939 Supreme Court decision realting to gun control - Brief Article

Current Events, Sept 24, 1999

* Most legal experts think that an upholding of the ruling in U.S. v. Emerson would mean that the case would end up in the U.S. Supreme Court. Only once has the High Court ruled on the Second Amendment--in U.S. v. Miller (1939). In that case, Arkansas bootlegger Jack Miller was indicted for violating the National Firearms Act of 1934 by carrying a sawed-off shotgun across state lines. Miller argued that the case against him should be dismissed because the Second Amendment protected his right to own and carry the weapon.

* In a unanimous decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against Miller, saying that his shotgun had no "reasonable relationship to the preservation ... of a well-regulated militia" and was thus not protected by the Second Amendment. The Court also noted that the shotgun was "not part of the ordinary military equipment or that its use could contribute to the common defense."

* U.S. v. Miller set the standard. Since then, courts have used the Supreme Court's reasoning in that case to uphold gun control laws in more than 21 cases.

* The gun control argument is playing out in a society that seems obsessed with guns. Hollywood movies, such as The Matrix (above), often glorify guns and gun battles, leading critics to say that Hollywood contributes to the problem of guns in America.

* The United States now has an estimated 200 million guns in circulation, and more than one-third of U.S. households now own a gun. In addition, an average of 87 Americans die each day from gun wounds.