This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Thursday, January 27th, 2011.

I'm Caleb Brown.

Since the landmark decision in the Heller case, which found an individual right to keep him bear arms and the follow-up

McDonald decision. Second Amendment litigation is just getting started.

Alan Gura argued both of those cases before the Supreme Court. We spoke last week on the future of the

legal fight over the Second Amendment. How has McDonald changed the course of

Second Amendment litigation going forward.

McDonald did two things for the Second Amendment.

First of all, McDonald gave the courts a green light

to consider whether or not state and local gun regulations violate the Second Amendment.

We could have always challenged those laws under the Second Amendment, but there was always

a question of whether states and localities actually had to bother with

Second Amendment standards. Now we know that they do.

McDonald also clarified that the Second Amendment is a fundamental right and what that means in in legal terminology is that this is a

significant right and that the government not the individual will bear the burden of showing that its laws actually satisfy very stringent standards as far as constitutionality.

What cases are coming to the fore?

There are any number of cases right now.

They're seeking to explore the reach

and extent of the Second Amendment.

The question is whether the government can ban certain

firearms, whether the government can either mandate that firearms contain certain features

or mandate that they do not contain certain features. We also have other types of cases where governments have

...