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Friday, June 27, 2008
Ind. Law - Impact of the decision in Heller on Indiana (and Chicago)
According to two stories today, the impact of the SCOTUS's decision yesterday in District of Columbia v. Heller on Indiana will be minimal.
John Murray has this report in the Indianapolis Star. Some quotes:
Legal experts and advocates on both sides of the gun-control debate agreed Thursday that Hoosiers were likely to see little fallout from the Supreme Court's landmark ruling.Lesley Stedman Weidenbener of the Louisville Courier Journal writes:Indiana law doesn't allow cities and counties to pass restrictions as severe as the District of Columbia's ban on handgun possession, thrown out Thursday in a split decision. While upholding an individual's right to own a firearm, the court left room for limits on more powerful guns and controls including licenses and permits.
Hoosier legislators said yesterday that the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling should have little or no bearing on the state's current laws.[More] See this story from the Chicago Sun-Times.Indiana doesn't require permits or licenses to purchase handguns and puts few restrictions on who can obtain them -- although state law does require a license to carry a handgun.
The General Assembly has also squelched local governments' ability to limit guns, authorizing them to impose only the barest of restrictions, such as bans on guns in public buildings and local permits for gun dealers.
"I think this decision just shores up what we've been doing all along," said state Sen. Johnny Nugent, R-Lawrenceburg, who is a member of the National Rifle Association board of directors. "We've taken the approach in Indiana that we need to defend the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which is what I believe the Supreme Court has reaffirmed now."
Posted by Marcia Oddi on June 27, 2008 09:45 AM
Posted to Indiana Law