WASHINGTON — Over the objections of two justices, the Supreme Court declined Monday to review a decision leaving intact San Francisco’s law requiring that handguns be stored in a lockbox or secured with a trigger lock.
Justice Clarence Thomas said fellow justices were derelict in not accepting cases in which challengers say state and local restrictions on gun use infringe on the Second Amendment rights recognized by the Supreme Court in 2008 in District of Columbia vs. Heller.
Individuals and gun rights groups tried to break through the reluctance of the Supreme Court to provide guidance on its 5-4 decision in Heller, which said that the Second Amendment protects an individual’s right to gun ownership for self-defense.
Thomas and Heller author Justice Antonin Scalia said the San Francisco law “allows residents to use their handguns for the purpose of self-defense, but it prohibits them from keeping those handguns operable for the purpose of immediate self-defense” at the times “they are most vulnerable.”
