When we think of Second Amendment rights, we traditionally think of law-abiding, responsible American citizens keeping guns for self-defense. However, a series of recent lawsuits have raised the question: Do undocumented immigrants have the right to bear arms? While an Illinois court said yes in March, a court in Louisiana disagreed on August 27.
In the August ruling, judges in the 5th Circuit applied a recent Second Amendment precedent, interpreting the term “the people” in the Second Amendment to exclude undocumented immigrants. Meanwhile, in its earlier ruling, the Illinois court pointed to a longstanding tradition of providing limited constitutional rights to non-citizens.
Courts can’t seem to agree on this issue. That’s why the Supreme Court should clarify the definition of “the people” in the Second Amendment to align with the rest of the Bill of Rights, providing a limited right to bear arms to undocumented immigrants.
Click here to read Harris Van Pate’s full op-ed published in the DC Journal.