Legal Question in Constitutional Law in Wisconsin

Re: Second Amendment

The Second Amendment does not expressly distinguish between citizens and non-citizens, though its reference to "the people" could be read that way. Whether the amendment grants *anyone* the right to own firearms is debatable, since it says that "the people" may keep and bear arms but not that an individual person may do so.

A divided federal appellate court in Washington, D.C. recently held that the amendment does protect an individual right to own weapons, and the U.S. Supreme Court is likely to review that case next year. It's decision will likely be the authoritative answer to whether individuals have the right to own guns.

Even if individuals do have the right to bear arms, there will remain the question of how much the government can regulate such ownership. The amendment refers to "arms" in general and not to guns in particular, but the government should probably be able to forbid private ownership of nerve gas, nuclear weapons and the like. This creates a line drawing-problem: can the government also forbid ownership of bazookas? Hand grenades? Machine guns? Assault rifles? There may be quite a bit of litigation in this area over the next several years.

Re: Second Amendment

As noted, the 2nd Amendment does not specify citizenship, but there may be practical considerations that slow down ownership by non-citizens, such as length of residency, driver's license, etc..