Posted on 06/27/2008 5:09:33 AM PDT by Zakeet
Thirty-thousand Americans are killed by guns every year — on the job, walking to school, at the shopping mall. The Supreme Court on Thursday all but ensured that even more Americans will die senselessly with its wrongheaded and dangerous ruling striking down key parts of the District of Columbia’s gun-control law.
In a radical break from 70 years of Supreme Court precedent, Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for the majority, declared that the Second Amendment guarantees individuals the right to bear arms for nonmilitary uses, even though the amendment clearly links the right to service in a “militia.” The ruling will give gun-rights advocates a powerful new legal tool to try to strike down gun-control laws across the nation.
This is a decision that will cost innocent lives, cause immeasurable pain and suffering and turn America into a more dangerous country. It will also diminish our standing in the world, sending yet another message that the United States values gun rights over human life.
There already is a national glut of firearms: estimates run between 193 million and 250 million guns. The harm they do is constantly on heartbreaking display. Thirty-three dead last year in the shootings at Virginia Tech. Six killed this year at Northern Illinois University.
On Wednesday, as the court was getting ready to release its decision, a worker in a Kentucky plastics plant shot his supervisor, four co-workers and himself to death.
Cities and states have tried to stanch the killing with gun-control laws. The District of Columbia, which has one of the nation’s highest crime rates, banned the possession of nearly all handguns and required that other firearms be stored unloaded and disassembled, or bound with a trigger lock.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I thought the NOPD came and disarmed the militia before it could swing into action.
With armed bodyguards! EXACTLY!!!
Let’s be candid, gun laws are written for and only affect law abiding citizens. The NY “Wimpy” Times can cry all it likes about the ruling, but the fact is this: The US has OVER 20,000 active gun laws on the books, and not a single one of them can or will stop the next gun crime.
The Second Amendment and the SCOTUS’ recent ruling just levels the playing field. Concealed carry is a plus for the good guys and open carry would be even better.
Yes, I’m guessing he broke more than one of the existing laws of the Commonwealth of Kentucky.
“even though the amendment clearly links the right to service in a “militia.” “
Scalia completely destroyed that argument yet the freedom hating anti-gunners still cling to it.
Wrong! It is in fact the other way around. Private ownership of guns ensures that if needed, a "militia" can be raised without the help of the "government". After all removing a corrupt "government" may be the reason the "militia" is needed.
Despite all of McCain’s flaws, in truth he lines up with Bush on most positions and is better than him on others, such as opposing pork barrel spending. Those who are planning on voting third party or sit home on election day in order to “teach the GOP a lesson” better think long and hard about just WHO gets to replace Justices Stevens and Ginsberg in the next 8 years.
Common knowledge here in DC.
I hear Justice Ginsburg is not in the best of health.
One of the good things about this decision is it makes the liberals whine.
The nyt editorial is drivel. It seems to infer that heretofore law abiding citizens are going to purchase a gun and that eeevil gun is going to make that person go out and commit murder.
Does Roe v. Wade ring a bell? There was a case where the Supreme Court created a new "right" out of whole cloth, to the applause of the liberal cadre that runs the Times but to the detriment of innocent lives everywhere. In Heller, by contrast the Court simply read the plain language of the Constitution and reported what it obviously meant. Of course, only "right-wingers" would approve of such a methodology.
The bottom line is that the D.C. gun control law (like all others of its kind) did nothing to prevent criminals from committing crimes with guns, and only affected the law-abiding who might have wished to defend themselves. The Times resolutely refuses to even consider this line of reasoning, as well they might, because "reason" is not part of their vocabulary. How else to explain the insistence that "guns" are killing people without reference to the nature and intent of the people behind the trigger?
I think that was in the decision. It would be absurd to have an amendment that allowed the armed forces to have weapons, so that can't be the meaning of the 2A.
In all the recent commentary about this decision it has been easy to pick out those who have not actually read it.
Thanks, Times, I already do have the Supreme Court in mind. And here’s hoping Obama loses.
Yes.
Why just this morning during my drive to work my .357 magnum leaped up off the passenger seat next to me and began making threatening moves; all by itself.
It was all I could do to grab it, decock it, and wrestle it back into its holster.
Fortunately, no one was harmed ... THIS time.
But I should probably get rid of that evil thing before someone gets hurt (most likely ME, according to the NYT and the WashPost).
The second-best lie is the truth, twisted.
Correct, but not for the reasons you list. The Second Amendment is about the balance of power between the government and the citizens. The Founding Fathers knew that if the government had all the guns, the citizens would have no protection against an abusive and runaway central government.
Also, in the days of our nation's founding, militia's were comprised of citizen soldiers. During times of national emergencies, there would not be time for these citizens to go to a central armory to withdraw a weapon.
The Times evidently wants to take away our guns. We will not be safer when we are disarmed. There’s no logic to the Times’ position.
Yea your right maybe some gang member or thug might need it.But I would just give them the bullets and keep the gun if I were you lol.
“There’s no logic to the Times’ position.”
That can be said about MOST of their editorial positions.
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