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Heller, High Water(Mark)? Lower Courts And The New Right To Keep And Bear Arms, Brannon P. Denning, Glenn H. Reynolds

Brannon P. Denning

This article, written for a symposium held at the University of California-Hastings, surveys lower court decisions applying Heller and the right to keep and bear arms it recognized to federal, state, and local gun laws. While no laws have, to date, been invalidated -- in part because of the strong signals sent by the Heller Court in the opinion -- the Court's recognition that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual right has altered the way in which courts treat gun ownership and, in some cases, has caused non-judicial actors to legislate "in the shadow" of Heller.