12/17/2004: Amendment II of the US Bill of Rights says: "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."
In November of 2005, San Francisco voters will face a ballot initiative that will ask them if they want to ban handgun ownership by everyone except law enforcement officers, members of the military and security guards. The measure would prohibit the sale, manufacture, or distribution of handguns, and the transfer of gun licenses. If the initiative passes, San Francisco residents would have 90 days to give up any firearms that they keep in their homes or businesses. The measure was submitted this week to the Department of Elections by several city supervisors who are concerned about violence caused by handgun use. Washington, D.C. is the only major American city that currently bans handgun possession by private citizens. Organizations such as Gun Owners of California have already called the proposed ban illegal.

The Second Amendment Foundation has condemed the proposed measure. The organization pointed out that a 1982 handun ban under Mayor Dianne Feinstein lasted only three months before it was overturned by the California State Court of Appeals. Twenty days after the ban was enacted, SAF took Feinstein and the city to court, and defeated the ban on Oct. 30 of that year. The city appealed that decision to the California Supreme Court, which allowed the Appeals Court ruling to stand in January 1983.

The Second Amendment Foundation and today hailed a report from the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel that concludes the Second Amendment "secures an individual right to keep and bear arms." The 93-page document, which is dated through Aug. 24. It details research by Assistant Attorneys General Steven G. Bradbury, Howard C. Nielson, Jr. and C. Kevin Marshall, who studied the history of legislation and court cases related to the Second Amendment. They note that, "our examination of the original meaning of the Amendment provides extensive reasons to conclude that the Second Amendment secures an individual right, and no persuasive basis for either the collective-right or quasi- collective-right views."

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