Texas joined 21 states asking the Supreme Court to uphold Hawaiians’ Second Amendment rights to bear arms following a ruling from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals last year that upheld Hawaii’s ban on residents bearing arms outside their homes.
The states filed an amicus brief with the high court to help resolve a split among the federal circuit courts of appeal after several of the courts ruled against the 2008 District of Columbia v. Heller case, a landmark gun-rights ruling.
“One of the highest responsibilities of a state is to safeguard the rights of its citizens,” the states wrote (pdf) in their brief last week, “including the right ‘to keep and bear arms’ under the Second Amendment.”
The brief added: “Law-abiding citizens keep firearms for self-protection—both inside and outside of their homes. Amici seek to ensure that their residents will not be deprived of their Second Amendment freedoms.” They argued that residents’ Second Amendment rights include using guns outside their homes.
“The plain text of the Second Amendment protects the right to bear arms, not just to keep them,” according to the court filing. “Yet Hawaii’s firearm carrying regulatory regime functions as an outright ban on the right to carry guns outside the home for most people. It therefore violates the Second Amendment.”
