BILL NUMBER: SCR 49AMENDED 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.