District of Columbia v. HellerIn 1976, the District of Columbia City Council enacted three of the strictest gun control ordinances in the United States. The ordinances completely ban handgun ownership in the District and, while allowing residents to keep rifles and shotguns in their homes, require those weapons to be disassembled or bound with a trigger lock. Then, in 2003, Dick Heller and five other plaintiffs were recruited by attorney Robert Levy and used to file suit against D.C. in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, alleging that D.C.'s gun ban violated their Second Amendment right to “keep” and bear arms. » The district court held that the Second Amendment should not give an individual the right to possess a firearm except when the individual is a member of an organized militia and granted the district's motion to dismiss . Heller and the other plaintiffs then appealed to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. The Court of Appeal then questioned whether the plaintiffs could even challenge the gun ban, because the condition was that a plaintiff had suffered actual due harm. In Washington, just wanting to keep a handgun at home, I'm not bratty enough to challenge the law. The court found that only Heller had a viable case because he suffered an actual injury when the district denied his handgun permit application. The court dismissed the others because the ban had not yet really affected them. The Court of Appeal then considered whether the right to bear arms, conferred by the Second Amendment, was an individual right or a right contingent upon membership in a well-regulated militia. The court determined that when Congress adopted the Bill of Rights, the term "militia" referred generally and broadly middle of paper......the Second Amendment grants a collective right to bear arms to individuals . associated with an organized military force. This court's decision was the first to favor an individual's right to bear arms and changed the way states regulate gun ownership. Primary Bibliography: “DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA v. HELLER.” DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA v. HELLER. Np, March 18, 2008. Web. March 3, 2014. Secondary: “District of Columbia v. Heller – Summary of the case. » Lawnix Free Case Files RSS. Np, and Web. March 2, 2014.Duignan, Brian. “District of Columbia v. Heller (law case).” Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, nd Web. February 28, 2014. Streissguth, Thomas. District of Columbia v. Heller: Right to Bear Arms Case. Berkeley Heights, NJ: Enslow, 2011. “United States: Gun Ownership and the Supreme Court.” » Second Amendment. Np, and Web. March 2. 2014.