Filed under: 2nd Amendment, Civil Rights, Constitution, Government, Guns, RKBA, Society
. . . because I sure feel like celebrating with the *good* scotch:
Court: A constitutional right to a gun
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.
Justice Antonin Scalia’s opinion for the majority stressed that the Court was not casting doubt on long-standing bans on gun possession by felons or the mentally retarded, or laws barring guns from schools or government buildings, or laws putting conditions on gun sales.
In District of Columbia v. Heller (07-290), the Court nullified two provisions of the city of Washington’s strict 1976 gun control law: a flat ban on possessing a gun in one’s home, and a requirement that any gun — except one kept at a business — must be unloaded and disassembled or have a trigger lock in place. The Court said it was not passing on a part of the law requiring that guns be licensed.
I know a lot of people don’t want a gun in their home. Fine, don’t have one. But this is a good decision for our civil rights, even if Scalia wrote the majority opinion.
Jim Downey
(Cross posted to UTI.)
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Communion Of Dreams 
As president of the Atlanta Log Cabin Republicans, I celebrate this decision as another vindication of the universal truth and freedom guaranteed by the Constitution.
Dr. T Baehr
Comment by Dr. Ted Baehr June 26, 2008 @ 12:39 pmThanks. You may not know it, but I identify as a liberal/progressive on most points, and in fact was just commenting over on dKos about this subject. Where, I am happy to say, a lot of people are pleased with this decision. There is nothing wrong with supporting the entire Bill of Rights, and that is what this decision does.
Jim D.
Comment by Communion of Dreams June 26, 2008 @ 12:48 pm