Tester, Hutchison: Supreme Court’s McDonald v. City of Chicago Decision ‘A Victory for All Americans’

Senate’s Leading Gun Rights Advocates Urged Court to Strengthen Gun Rights

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Calling it ‘a victory for all Americans’, U.S. Senators Jon Tester (D-Mont.) and Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) praised today’s landmark U.S. Supreme Court McDonald v. Chicago decision.

The ruling finds it unconstitutional for state and local governments to restrict individual gun rights of law-abiding Americans.

Tester and Hutchison led a bipartisan effort in Congress urging the U.S. Supreme Court to side in favor of individual gun rights and to strike down local restrictions.

Tester and Hutchison are Congress’ leading gun rights advocates. They said today’s decision gives all law-abiding American gun owners reason to celebrate.

“Today, we ensured that law-abiding folks have the same Second Amendment rights no matter where in America they live,” said Tester, co-chairman of the Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus. “This decision is a major victory for America’s gun owners and I’ll keep fighting hard to protect our gun rights.”

“Today’s Supreme Court ruling is a major victory for the rights of all Americans to protect themselves and their families,” said Hutchison. “The Supreme Court once again sent a clear message to local, state, and federal governments: the individual right to keep and bear arms applies to all law abiding Americans, regardless where they live.”

Tester and Hutchison wrote and delivered a 59-page friend-of-the-court brief to the Court last October for McDonald v. Chicago.  The document, which argued for inherent individual gun rights under the Second Amendment, included signatures from 309 senators and representatives from both parties—more members of Congress than any friend-of-the-court brief in U.S. history.

Tester and Hutchison also led a successful effort in Congress to support gun rights in the landmark Supreme Court case Heller v. District of Columbia.  That case overturned Washington, D.C.’s longstanding ban on firearms 5-to-4.