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An Historic Day for the Second Amendment
By Bull Nav
The right expressed by the Second Amendment, the one I always knew was an individual right, was upheld and clearly explained today by the Supreme Court in their ruling on Heller vs. DC.
Answering a 127-year old constitutional question, the Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to have a gun, at least in one’s home. The Court, splitting 5-4, struck down a District of Columbia ban on handgun possession. Although times have changed since 1791, Justice Antonin Scalia said for the majority, “it is not the role of this Court to pronounce the Second Amendment extinct.”
The whole 157 page opinion is available here.
My opinion is thus: how could they rule otherwise? Every other amendment in the Bill of Rights has been affirmed as an individual right, so to this non-lawyer it follows the the Second Amendment is also an individual right.
This will mean changes in DC and Chicago, which also prohibits handgun ownership. I don't expect the anti-gun crowd to lay down and quit, they will just get more creative in their attacks on the Second Amendment. I also don't think this decision will have any bearing on any congressional attempt to prohibit certain type of firearms as they did with the "Assault Weapons Ban" in 1994.
It will be decidedly interesting to see if either of the Presidental candidates have any comments on this ruling...
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The ruling also allows for local governments to impose licensing and registration requirements on gun owners, which means that DC and other locales may impose burdensome bureaucratic hurdles in place to effectively stop individual ownership.
I'm not sure if this ruling will change much of anything, other than force anti-gunners to use different tactics.
Marcus,
Interestingly enough, that was one of my points elsewhere - the DC handgun licensing office will probably make the DMV look efficient.
"My opinion is thus: how could they rule otherwise?"
Four justices on the court did just that. Justice Kennedy saved the second amendment. Kennedy sways both ways however.
This was no slam dunk.
If anybody needs a reason to vote McCain, this is it. Judges are very important in our society. When certain groups cannot get their way through the normal political process, they press their issues in our courts.
Habeas rights for terrorrist detainees from the battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq is one recent example. Kennedy wrote the majority opinion.
Conservative judges? Vote McCain.
Doug Santo
Pasadena, CA
"Conservative judges? Vote McCain."
The irony in that statement being, of course, that Justice Kennedy was appointed by a REPUBLICAN President. Yes, judges are important, but a D or an R after a candidate's name doesn't guarantee they will appoint certain types of judges.
McCain voted for Roberts and Alito and actively campaigned for both in the senate. I believe Obama voted against both these men.
Mistakes appointing judges are possible. Judges changing their views after sitting on the court, that is possible.
Obama appointing conservative judges? That is not possible.
Doug Santo
Pasadena, CA
I live in DC. I expect gun dealers will, soon enough, do thriving business in DC. I can't wait. I'll be first in line. Oh, of course I could have bought guns in nearby Md or Va. But, hey, I'm a law-abiding kinda guy -- though I do think sometimes we conservatives are a bit too law-abiding, considering the bullshit laws fostered on us by Libs. But, I'll obey DC laws, until they are declared unconstitutional. But now -- Gott sei dank! -- (that's German for "God be thanked") -- I can lawfully gun down any goddamn lib who invades my home. Moreover -- my blessings do overflow! -- the NRA headquarters are nearby, in northern VA, near DC. I drive by their marksmanship range almost every day, on the way to George Mason U., where I teach. And they offer courses in gun usage, safety, etc. Sign me up, ASAP.
I wish I could meet Justice Scalia. Just to tell him: "God Bless, and may you prosper! And may the Constitution prosper!" Though it won't, until we get a couple more Scalia-clones on the Big Bench. A reason for Conservatives to support McCain, despite all the shit he's thrown our way? Well, I'd say yes. No guarantees as to what he'd do, Supreme-Court-wise -- he could stick it to Conservatives there as much as he has elsewhere. But there's modest reason to think he might -- just might -- be ok on that issue, and complete/certain reason to think SenatorCliches would be An Absolute Abomination. That, combined with Iraq, persuades me to vote for McCain. Though, as I've said, I live in DC, so my vote for McCain might increase his DC tally from 1% to 1.0000001%. If that. Aw, well, no matter who wins, at least I'll have my new handgun (any recommendations?) to put under my pillow on election night.
Actually both Obama and McCain came out in support of the ruling
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/06/obama-embraces.html
Obama's embrace is probably political maneuvering though.
I really want to read the dissenting opinion(s) to figure out how this vote came down to a 5-4 split especially with the majority opinion being careful to allow restrictions under the ruling.
"how could they rule otherwise?"
As stated above, look at the opinion of the other four justices.
Fascists can't allow for an individual's right to protect themselves. We must all be totally reliant on them for their socialism to "work".
"Fascists can't allow for an individual's right to protect themselves. We must all be totally reliant on them for their socialism to "work"."
Although happily, this didn't reverse restrictions on the mentally ill owning handguns.
No doubt those legions of fascist, socialist cops invariably arguing the benefits of such restrictions have now had their evil plans thwarted.
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Anyone want to open a gun shop in DC?
Because right now there aren't any - and crossing state lines to buy a gun is apparently illegal - so this decision has effectively no immediate effect on the residents of DC - they're still being kept unarmed:
http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2008/06/26/not-so-fast-sizing-up-the-heller-rulings-immediate-effect-on-dc/