The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on a consequential decision regarding the application of the Second Amendment in 2008.
The ruling in District of Columbia v. Heller held that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual’s right to possess a firearm, unconnected with service in a militia.
Dick Heller, a plaintiff in the landmark court case, sat down with The Daily Caller News Foundation in honor of the 10-year anniversary of the decision that permanently altered the debate over the right to keep and bear arms.
Heller, who worked as a security guard at the Federal Justice Center in Washington, D.C., carried a firearm while he was at work. Wanting to keep a firearm at his home, he applied for a gun permit and ultimately was denied.
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“They won’t let me have a gun to protect me, but they’ll give me a gun to protect them,” Heller said, recalling the moment his fight began. (RELATED: Kavanaugh Judicial Record Shows SCOTUS Could Start Deciding More Gun Cases)
He reflected on his time in the Supreme Court and the moment Justice Antonin Scalia announced the decision that would forever change the terms of the gun debate.
“As Scalia cleared his throat, it was so quiet that you could have heard a mouse scurry across the floor. You could hear your heart beating. You could feel it. It was unbelievably quiet,” Heller said. “And his first statement was ‘we are not here today to erase the Second Amendment of the United States.'”
“That was a magic moment,” Heller continued.
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