Opinion ID: 2074284
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: andrews' appeal

Text: Andrews presents three contentions for our consideration, but we discern no merit in any of them. Only one of his claims, namely, that the District's gun control statutes deny him rights protected by the Second Amendment, requires more than summary discussion. In Sandidge v. United States, 520 A.2d 1057 (D.C.), cert. denied, 484 U.S. 868, 108 S.Ct. 193, 98 L.Ed.2d 145 (1987), this court rejected the very claim here being asserted by Andrews, as follows: We agree with numerous other courts that the Second Amendment guarantees a collective rather than an individual right. United States v. Warin, 530 F.2d 103, 106 (6th Cir.), cert. denied, 426 U.S. 948, 96 S.Ct. 3168, 49 L.Ed.2d 1185 (1976); accord Stevens v. United States, 440 F.2d 144, 149 (6th Cir.1971); United States v. Kozerski, 518 F.Supp. 1082, 1090 (D.N.H.1981), aff'd mem., 740 F.2d 952 (1st Cir.), cert. denied, 469 U.S. 842, 105 S.Ct. 147, 83 L.Ed.2d 86 (1984); Annot. 37 A.L.R. Fed. 696, 706 (1978) (citing cases). That is to say, it protects a state's right to raise and regulate a militia by prohibiting Congress from enacting legislation that will interfere with that right. The Second Amendment says nothing that would prohibit a state (or the legislature for the District of Columbia) from restricting the use or possession of weapons in derogation of the government's own right to enroll a body of militiamen bearing arms supplied by themselves as in bygone days. United States v. Miller, 307 U.S. 174, 179, 59 S.Ct. 816, 83 L.Ed. 1206 (1939). In sum, [t]he right to keep and bear arms is not a right conferred upon the people by the federal constitution. Whatever rights the people may have depend upon local legislation. . . . Cases v. United States, 131 F.2d 916, 921 (1st Cir.1942), cert. denied, 319 U.S. 770, 63 S.Ct. 1431, 87 L.Ed. 1718 (1943). Id. at 1058. The decision in Sandidge is binding on us as a division of this court. M.A.P. v. Ryan, 285 A.2d 310, 312 (D.C.1971). As we recently stated in Bennett v. United States, 876 A.2d 623 (D.C.2005), a case in which we considered a Second Amendment claim similar to the one now before us, appellant can not prevail because his challenges are foreclosed by this court's binding precedents. Id. at 636 (citing inter alia, our decisions in Sandidge and in M.A.P. v. Ryan ). We explained that under the rule of M.A.P. v. Ryan , [n]o division of the court may overrule another division; only the en banc court can accomplish this result. Bennett, 876 A.2d at 636 n. 13; accord, Austin v. United States, 847 A.2d 391 392-93 (D.C.) (per curiam), cert. denied, 543 U.S. 895, 125 S.Ct. 185, 160 L.Ed.2d 161 (2004). Andrews cites Parker v. District of Columbia, 375 U.S.App. D.C. 140, 478 F.3d 370 (2007), pet. for rehearing en banc filed 4/9/07, in which the court held that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to bear arms. [11] We are, however, precluded by Sandidge and by M.A.P. v. Ryan [12] from following the decision in Parker. Moreover, the court in Parker explicitly noted that the issue before it was whether the Second Amendment protects the individual right to bear arms within a citizen's home, so we need not consider the more difficult issue whether the District can ban the carrying of handguns in public, or in automobiles. Parker, 478 F.3d at 370. Andrews carried a pistol in public (on July 7, 2000, when he shot the decedent) and in an automobile (on or about July 21, when the Glock 17 was recovered from the Cadillac). Accordingly, even if we were not precluded by Sandidge and M.A.P. v. Ryan from construing the Second Amendment as Andrews ask us to interpret it, the Parker decision would not be dispositive in Andrews' favor. [13]