Comments on: Supremes overturn D.C. handgun ban

By: jake

jake — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 03:33:49 +0000

Craig K.: Not to worry. The opinion states in its findings that:

“The Court’s opinion should not be taken to cast doubt on longstanding prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill …”.

I would venture to say the term “all Americans” in the opinion most likely refers to the past injustice of denial of 2nd Ammendment rights to former slaves, and their decendants. Certainly, we would not want such irresposible people as you desribe to possess any kind of weapon, and the Supreme Court agrees.

By: jake

jake — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 01:54:19 +0000

For the first time in my adult life, I am proud of my country.
Five Justices on the Supreme Court proved that they knew how to read English.
Of course, it does indicate that four of them do not have that ability.

By: Bookworm

Bookworm — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 00:33:30 +0000

No way does this decision this take gun control OFF the table as an election issue — any more than Roe took abortion “off the table” as a political issue. If anything it will make it an even hotter issue.

The one-vote margin on both the gun decision and the child rape case decision will also make the future composition of the Court more of a front-burner issue in the presidential election.

SCOTUS has decided that gun ownership is a constitutional right residing with the individual. Now the question becomes how much can that right be restricted and for what reasons — and those questions will take many more years to resolve completely. Those questions are still coming up on abortion and the death penalty 30 + years later and I imagine it will be the same with the gun issue.

I agree with the ruling simply on the grounds that people have a natural right to defend themselves unless there is a compelling reason to take that right away from them (e.g. a criminal record, mental instability).

By: Menlo Bob

Menlo Bob — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 20:08:24 +0000

I like this phrasing of Scalia’s majority opinion.

“But if “bear arms” means, as the petitioners and the dissent think, carrying of arms only for military purposes, one simply cannot add “for the purpose of killing game.”

By: Craig Knauss

Craig Knauss — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 18:57:42 +0000

“We start therefore with a strong presumption that the Second Amendment right is exercised individually and belongs to all Americans.”

Interesting. Especially since some of those “all Americans” are in prisons, psychiatric wards, nursing homes, kindergartens, etc.

I can’t wait until the punks in our local prison demand their rights to own and bear arms. That’ll be fun.

Anyway, it’ll have little impact where I live now, since every Tom, Dick, and Billy Bob is already armed to the teeth.

By: Pat Cunningham

Pat Cunningham — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 15:21:43 +0000

Bob: As one whose opinions on gun control have evolved over the years, I don’t disagree with the court’s ruling. I don’t own any guns myself, because I’m not a hunter and I don’t cringe in fear at things that go bump in the night. Nor do I need a firearm to make me feel like a man. And I think it’s silly for some of these gun enthusiasts to pretend that their little arsenals are what keeps tyrannical government at bay. I expect that a lot of people are going to be surprised to discover that this ruling does not overturn most of the gun-control laws in this country. It just says the government can’t ban basic kinds of firearms. Automatic weapons are another matter. There’s going to a lot of political wrangling over this matter for years to come, that’s for sure. In one sense, the pro-gun people have now lost the basis for future arguments that any proposed gun-control law creates a slippery slope that could lead to a total ban.

By: Menlo Bob

Menlo Bob — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 14:56:34 +0000

In non election cycles Democrats opt for more gun control talk. When it comes to close elections they acknowledge a large population of gun owners and muffle their natural instincts with airy references to hunting–as if the constitution read like Field and Stream magazine. Self-defense is the issue and that resonates well with a cross section of voters. I don’t expect this to be as large an issue as it would’ve been if the DC gun ban had been upheld.