As you have probably heard, the Justice Department now admits that the Second Amendment is an individual right. However, they are doing so in briefs trying to prevent the hearing of two Second Amendment cases -- Emerson's and Haney's.

The Haney case is about a dumb guy who walked into a police station and said he had unlicensed machine guns and that they couldn't do anything about it. He likely did this on his own, without consulting gun rights groups with attorneys, and he is now in jail. Hopefully the Supreme Court will ignore his case as he did not present a strong argument at trial, and therefore his poor planning could harm all gun owners as it is unlikely that his case could be salvaged in appeals.

The more interesting case is, of course, U.S. v. Emerson. Since Emerson was never convicted of a crime, and was subject only to a boilerplate, civil divorce court restraining order rather than a criminal domestic violence restraining order, SAF has maintained that his right to own a gun should not have been eliminated so easily.

Without Emerson's appeal to the Supreme Court, funded mostly by SAF in cooperation with numerous small contributors with high dollar supporting organizations in the Fifty Caliber Shooters' Policy Institute, KeepAndBearArms.com and the Washington Arms Collectors, it is unlikely that the Justice Department would have bothered with the meaning of the Second Amendment in the Haney case.

In short, our efforts made a difference! And this provides more authoritative support that the Second Amendment is an individual right in future lawsuits.

But if the Supreme Court doesn't take a Second Amendment case, then a future Administration could change the interpretation of the Second Amendment again.

For this reason, we hope the nation's highest court will accept the Emerson case, and decide this issue clearly for the first time in over 200 years.

For more information, read the Government Briefs in Emerson and Haney linked off of here:

http://www.saf.org/pub/rkba/news/EmersonFix.htm

Read News and Editorial Coverage of this Justice Department change here:

http://www.saf.org/pub/rkba/news/EmersonAppealNews.htm

Read about the Emerson Defense Fund here:

http://www.saf.org/pub/rkba/press-releases/EmersonDefenseFund.htm

Donate to the Emerson fund here:

https://wwws.mainstream.net/saf/contribute/contribute_form.html

Thanks again for everything!

Sincerely,

Dave LaCourse