The Next Legal Battlefield - Bearing Arms in Public

Today's Wall Street Journal has this article that discusses the next court battle in the right to keep and bear arms - bearing arms in public.

"Whether the right to bear arms extends to outside the home is the next battlefield," said Adam Winkler, a law professor at UCLA and a Second Amendment expert. "And if that right does exist, courts then have to wrestle with a whole host of other issues, like how far it extends and what kinds of permitting regimes are permissible."

Two suits filed recently in Illinois are among a small group that could provide the U.S. Supreme Court its next opportunity to further clarify the Second Amendment. Part of the need for clarification is due in part to the two cases recently heard by the court; Heller and McDonald, which dealt with the D.C. and Chicago gun bans respectively.

Since the Supreme Court rulings, gun advocates have filed scores of challenges on all sorts of laws at the federal, state and local levels. They have sued over age restrictions on carrying guns outside the home, restrictions to "concealed carry" rules in national parks, and requirements that people show "good cause" and take a firearms course in order to get a permit to carry a concealed weapon out of the home.

Seattle Gun Rights Examiner Dave Workman told the WSJ that it will take years of litigation for courts to hammer the meaning out of what Scalia meant in Heller when he said nothing in the opinion should cast doubt on laws barring the carrying of firearms in "sensitive places such as schools and government buildings."

With the 2012 Presidential Election approaching, it is more important now that a pro-rights candidate is elected.  It is thought that whoever wins next year may make as many as three Supreme Court appointments by the end of their term in office.