KTVU news release today 1/9/2008
KTVA news reported today the Appellate Panel upheld a lower court ruling that overturned San Francisco's ban on residents owning, possessing or transferring handguns within the city. San Francisco's DA has pledged amicus briefs to the SCOTUS case regarding DC's upcoming firearms appeal to it. The DC case before SCOTUS will have a monumental impact on local firearms prohibitions regardless its decision. Either way this high court rules will either severly restrict firearms ownership and possession or severly restrict local and state governments from enacting restrictive firearms possession laws. This decision by the high court is most important to those of us who believe the 2nd Amendment is an individual fundamental right not subject to restrictive legislation on either local or state levels.
SAN FRANCISCO -- San Francisco's controversial handgun ban, approved by city voters in 2005, suffered another legal setback Wednesday when it was overturned by a state appeals court panel that ruled it conflicted with state law.
Appeals Court Justice Ignazio Ruvolo was critical of the measure, known as Proposition H, in the unanimous 3-0 decision. Ruvolo wrote for the court that "local governments are well advised to tread lightly" when regulating firearms.
The justice wrote further that the state laws were intended to balance the "interest of the general public to be protected from the criminal misuse of firearms" and the interest of "law-abiding citizens to purchase and use firearms to deter crime, to help police fight crime" and for hunting and recreation.
http://www.ktvu.com/news/15013899/detail.html
