In The News
AMERICA WINS!! SECOND AMENDMENT UPHELD!!
Kicks off an immediate string of lawsuits to retake gun rights.
In the most important decision about the Second Amendment in the history of the United States, the Supreme Court today released its decision today, affirming the simple-but-monumental fact that this vital piece of the Bill of Rights guarantees an individual right to keep and bear arms.
Of course, this is the Heller case -- the D.C. gun ban case, if you prefer. In Washington, D.C., handguns are banned, and citizens there are prohibited from having any functional firearm in their homes, even for self-defense. In a well-planned lawsuit challenging that ban on the basis of the Second Amendment, attorney Alan Gura artfully presented his arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court this spring.
If you missed it, click here to listen to the audio of the Heller case being presented to the court on the Gun Talk podcast website.
Okay, let's review -- the Second Amendment says, "A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."
The decision of SCOTUS is, as expected, narrow in scope, but it does affirm that this right is guaranteed to individuals, rather than some nebulous "collective," a fictitious construct which had infected courts over the last several decades. We now are faced with years, and decades, of legal expeditions to discover where lie the boundaries of "reasonable restrictions" on this right.
LAWSUITS LAWSUITS LAWSUITS
When she was a guest on Gun Talk radio, Sandy Froman, past president of the NRA, called the Heller case the "Roe V. Wade" of gun rights, in that it would spark at least two decades of lawsuits to define and solidify what the right actually is. That process started today with the decision of the court. It continues tomorrow with the first of many lawsuits.
The city of Chicago has a gun ban equivalent to that of D.C.. As I write this, I'm a the Shooting Sports Summit in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where I'm speaking to the leaders of the firearms industry. Yesterday, Alan Gottlieb, founder of the Second Amendment Foundation, told me that group is sitting on a lawsuit challenging that clear violation Chicago citizens' rights, as confirmed today by SCOTUS. Look for that suit to be filed within the next 48 hours.
NOTE: Alan Gottlieb, founder of the Second Amendment Foundation, is scheduled to be a guest on Gun Talk radio this Sunday, June 29.
Look for another suit to be filed in a California city this week, with more to follow. The briefs are written, waiting to go. All was just waiting for this decision. I've been asked to not reveal the specifics of this case, but it has potential beyond ending a gun ban. Details later.
What does this mean?
Well, more importantly, for many, is what the Heller decision does NOT mean. It does not mean that all gun control laws are null and void. It does not repeal the Gun Control Act of 1968, nor does it void any other gun law, other than the specific one in Washington upon which the lawsuit was constructed.
Don't plan on buying that submachine gun at Wal-Mart anytime soon.
The MSN (mainstream media) will swallow the spin of the gun banners such as the Brady Campaign that this isn't that big a deal, since it deals only with D.C, and the decision was narrowly drawn.
BULL. This decision simply destroys those groups. They already have been recreating themselves in expectation of this. The Brady Bunch has announced that it has lost this war, and that there is no need to even discuss whether there is an individual right to own guns. Their focus, now, will be on state and city bans and restrictions, since the Second Amendment has never been "incorporated." That means that it restricts only the federal government in efforts to restrict gun rights. Until it is incorporated, it does not apply to city and state governments.
Trust me on this one -- the lawsuits are already written to set the stage for incorporation. This would require another journey through the court system, to the Supreme Court. Some very smart people have mapped that trek, and they are lacing on their hiking boots.
As you talk with friends about this case, and you write letters to the editor (because we just know the papers will take a decidedly anti-gun rights slant to this), you might try this one. For some reason, many people get confused with the grammar and structure of the Second Amendment's wording. They have said that the first part ("A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state . . ." restricts the second part, so that only the militia has the "right to keep and bear arms."
Try this one. "A well-educated people, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and read books shall not be infringed." Now, ask them if this means that only well-educated people could keep and read books, or does it mean that everyone can have books as a means to produce a well-educated people.
Yes, there will be wailing from the loons on both sides of this issue. On the gun rights side, some have fretted that Alan Gura threw them under the bus by telling the court that this case is not about machine guns. Some folks drive fast with only their parking lights on, I guess, rendering them incapable of seeing very far down the road. If Gura had told the court he wanted to remove the (illegal) restrictions on machine guns, the court would have ruled against gun rights.
Patience, Grasshopper. We now have one foot solidly on the rock of constitutional rights. Now, we begin.
This will be the big story for the next week, and it will certainly affect the presidential election. While it's clear to anyone who isn't a fool that Obama has a solid record of supporting not only restrictions on citizens' gun rights, but he actually favors gun bans, the Heller decision will force a discussion on gun rights. It also will bring the all-important subject of Supreme Court nominations into the discussion.
Tune in to Sunday's Gun Talk radio show for the latest news and analysis on this ground-breaking gun rights case.
Tom Gresham
