Associated Press
Sunday, April 4, 1999; Page A10
LUBBOCK, Tex.¯A federal judge dismissed charges against a man accused of breaking a law that prohibits someone under a restraining order from owning a gun.
Legal experts said Thursday's decision set an important precedent that could be the basis for challenges to other gun control laws.
"If appealed, this could be the springboard for a definitive Supreme Court ruling on the Second Amendment," said Stephen Holbrook, an attorney who represented sheriffs in a successful challenge to provisions of the federal Brady gun control law. "That could have wide implications."
The case revolves around Timothy Joe Emerson, a physician in San Angelo who was arrested last year and charged with violating a restraining order after brandishing a handgun in front of his wife and her daughter.
Defense attorneys argued that Emerson has a right to own guns under the Second Amendment and that any law infringing upon that is unconstitutional.
U.S. District Judge Sam Cummings agreed, ruling that the right to bear arms is a protected individual right -- not just a right belonging to an organized militia, as federal prosecutors contended.
Cummings said he based his decision on a "historical examination of the right to bear arms, from English antecedents to the drafting of the Second Amendment."
Government lawyers plan to appeal.
"This has monumental potential," said former state senator Jerry Patterson, who wrote the law allowing Texans to carry concealed handguns. "If federal prosecutors proceed with an appeal, this could be the case that the court uses to directly rule on the issue."
Anti-gun activists, however, assailed the case as an anomaly that probably will be overturned.
"No gun control law has ever been struck down because of the Second Amendment," said Brian Morton, a spokesman for the Center to Prevent Handgun Violence.
© Copyright 1999 The Associated Press