Date: Fri, 9 Dec 1994 00:05:28 -0500
From: alerts@gatekeeper.nra.org (NRA Alerts)
To: firearms-alert@shell.portal.com
Subject: INFO: Televised debate - referenced ruling (Lewis v., US)


December 8, 1994

In a televised debate between Tanya K Metaksa, Executive Director
of ILA, and a representative from the Center to Prevent Handgun
Violence (CPHV), on December 7, 1994 the CPHV representative cited
Lewis v. United States as a Supreme Court ruling refuting the
individual right to keep and bear arms.

Below is a summary of that ruling.  For a more complete list of
Supreme Court and Federal Court rulings related to the Second
Amendment download FEDCASES.TXT from the FILE library.
           
          FEDERAL CASES REGARDING THE SECOND AMENDMENT
                    U.S. Supreme Court Cases

     Lewis v. United States, 445 U.S. 95 (1980).  Lewis recognized
-- in  summarizing the holding of Miller, supra, as "the Second
Amendment guarantees no right to keep and bear a firearm that does
not have 'some reasonable relationship to the preservation or
efficiency of a well-regulated militia'" (emphasis added) -- that
Miller had focused upon the type of firearm.  Further, Lewis was
concerned only with  whether the provision of the Omnibus Crime
Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 which prohibits the possession
of firearms by convicted felons (codified in 18 U.S.C. 922(g) in
1986) violated the Second Amendment.  Thus, since convicted felons
historically were and are subject to the loss of numerous
fundamental rights of citizenship -- including the right to vote,
hold office, and serve on juries -- it was not erroneous for the
Court to have concluded that laws prohibiting the possession of
firearms by a convicted felon "are neither based upon
constitutionally suspect criteria, nor do they trench upon any
constitutionally protected liberties."
--
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