BILL NUMBER: SCR 49	AMENDED
	BILL TEXT

	AMENDED IN SENATE  JUNE 27, 2013

INTRODUCED BY   Senator Knight
   (Coauthors: Senators Berryhill, Fuller, Gaines, Huff, and Nielsen)


                        JUNE 3, 2013

   Relative to firearms.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   SCR 49, as amended, Knight. Firearms.
   This measure would commemorate the 5-year anniversary of the
District of Columbia v. Heller decision and the United States Supreme
Court's interpretation of the Second Amendment's "right to keep and
bear arms."
   Fiscal committee: no.



   WHEREAS, The United States Constitution is the supreme law of the
land and the foundation upon which all United States law is built;
and
   WHEREAS, The Second Amendment to the United States Constitution
provides that "  a] well regulated Militia, being necessary to the
security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear
Arms, shall not be infringed"; and
   WHEREAS, On June 26, 2008, the United States Supreme Court issued
its historic decision in District of Columbia v. Heller to recognize
that the Second Amendment serves to protect an individual's right to
keep and bear arms, unconnected to militia service; and
   WHEREAS, For centuries, tyrants have recognized that a disarmed
population is readily dominated. Moreover, two out of three Americans
recognize that their constitutional right to own a gun was intended
to ensure their freedom. To that end, the Heller decision recognized
that the right to keep and bear arms was codified to, among other
things, "safeguard against tyranny"; and
   WHEREAS, Private, individual ownership and use of firearms has
existed in every American state throughout the nation's history and
continues to this day as a cherished and fundamental aspect of
American culture; and 
   WHEREAS, In the District of Columbia v. Heller decision, the
Supreme Court stated that the ruling has its limitations: "Like most
rights, the right secured by the Second Amendment is not
unlimited....Although we do not undertake an exhaustive historical
analysis today of the full scope of the Second Amendment, nothing in
our opinion should be taken to cast doubt on longstanding
prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally
ill, or laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places
such as schools and government buildings, or laws imposing
conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms"; and

   WHEREAS, State lawmakers have a profound interest in this case as
guardians of their constituents' health, welfare, and constitutional
rights; and
   WHEREAS, June 26, 2013, will mark the fifth anniversary of the
District of Columbia v. Heller decision; now, therefore, be it
   Resolved by the Senate of the State of California, the Assembly
thereof concurring, That the Legislature commemorate the five-year
anniversary of the District of Columbia v. Heller decision and the
United States Supreme Court's true interpretation of the Second
Amendment's "right to keep and bear arms"; and be it further
   Resolved, That the Secretary of the Senate transmit copies of this
resolution to the author for appropriate distribution.