supreme court justices reached the haller decision in the district of columbia vs. haller. they made it very clear, this is nat collective right. this is not contingent on membership in a militia. the second amendment is an individual right that applies to individual americans, and agree. not too long after that in the mcdonald vs. city of chicago decision, the court went even further in upholding the haller decision and recognizing that, it affirmed that decision and went further and said this second amendment right is so important and so basic and so important, it's binding on states and local governments as well. so not only can the federal got not infringe upon second amendment rights but neither can a state or local government. so that's a pretty impressive conclusion that our court has come to. in resolving the big part of this contentious debate. now i pose a question that the court has also addressed, and that is, is this a right that is enjoyed by all of the people of america? in my opinion, and i think this is not controversial, the answer to that question is, no.

he was talking about the supreme court's 2008 decision in the district of columbia versus haller.here's what he had to say. >> justice scalia nothing in the opinion, the heller opinion affirming the individual right of the aced amendment. he said nothing in our opinion should be taken to cast out on long standing prohibition on the possession of firearm by felon and the mentally ill or laws imposing condition and qualification on the commercial sale of arms. seems to me that's an explicit explanation that it is not on an infringement on second amendment rights to attempt to keep firearms out of the hands of criminals, mentally ill people. so the if founders in agreement on this and the supreme court in agreement, and we have laws in all fifty states that name illegal for certain criminals and mentally ill people to have firearms, question is are we willing to take modest measures to try to achieve this goal that, i think we all share. and that is clearly consistent with our snugs. -- snugs. you heard the senator say it's consistent. the constitution. the background check they're p