Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court correctly ruled in District of Columbia v. Heller that the Second Amendment is a personal right. That was a huge victory for freedom-loving Americans.  

Unfortunately, the court did not address the matter of whether the Second Amendment only restricted the power of the federal government or if it should apply to state and city laws as well.  

What many Americans do not realize is that the Bill of Rights, of which the Second Amendment is a part, do not all apply to the states.   When the Bill of Rights took effect on Dec. 15, 1791, those amendments were only restrictions on the power of the federal government. They did not bind the states.  

The United States adopted the 14th Amendment on July 9, 1868, which dramatically altered the nature of the U.S. government, for good and bad.   Included in the 14th Amendment is the Due Process Clause -- “No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”  

While it did not happen immediately, the Supreme Court eventually interpreted the Due Process Clause to mean that some of the Bill of Rights apply to the states in a theory called “incorporation.” The first case where there was specific incorporation was in 1925.  

The incorporation of the Bill of Rights to the states has been a slow process, much to the chagrin of those, such as myself, who believe there should be total incorporation.  

So far, most of the clauses of the Bill of Rights (or, more accurately, the first eight amendments because the Ninth and 10th Amendments cannot be incorporated) have been incorporated. All that remains are the Second Amendment, Third Amendment, the grand jury indictment clause of the Fifth Amendment, and the Seventh Amendment.  

The Third, Fifth and Seventh Amendments are unlikely to ever be incorporated because there is simply no need. That leaves only the Second Amendment.  

Shortly after the Heller decision, which shot down perhaps one of the most ridiculous gun control laws in the nation, the National Rifle Association and others filed a slew of lawsuits against state and city governments to overturn other laws violating our fundamental right to keep and bear arms.  

In April, a three-judge panel of the liberal 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in California ruled that the Second Amendment applies to the states. The full court is reviewing that ruling and likely will issue a decision Monday.  

Not all the circuit courts agree.  

In January, the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in New York ruled there is no incorporation of the Second Amendment. The 2nd Circuit, by the way, is where Judge Sonia Sotomayor, President Barack Obama’s choice to be the next Supreme Court justice, sits. Sotomayor is an outspoken opponent of your fundamental right to keep and bear arms.  

Of course, the court’s reasoning is not clear because the poorly written decision did not say why or how it reached that conclusion. Additionally, the case was not even about guns, but about nunchakus kept inside a man’s home.  

Likewise, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago ruled last month in NRA v. Chicago that there was no incorporation of the Second Amendment. The court relied on 19th century Supreme Court decisions in reaching its conclusion. However, the Supreme Court issued those decisions before the incorporation movement.  

Because of the split in circuit court decisions, there is a petition asking the Supreme Court to hear the NRA v. Chicago case and settle whether the Second Amendment applies to the states.  

It is conspicuous that the Second Amendment remains the only significant part of the Bill of Rights that does not apply to the states. It is time for the Supreme Court to remedy that situation and further recognize our fundamental right to keep and bear arms.  

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Thomas J. Lucente Jr. is a columnist with The Lima (Ohio) News, a Freedom Communications newspaper. He is also a veteran of the Iraq war and a law student at the University of Toledo in Toledo, Ohio.