High court gets one right

After a couple of disappointing decisions involving child rapists and enemy combatants, the US Supreme Court finally got one right concerning the Second Amendment and gun rights. The AP reports that

"The Supreme Court ruled today that Americans have a right to own guns for self-defense and hunting, the justices’ first major pronouncement on gun rights in U.S. history. The court’s 5-4 ruling struck down the District of Columbia’s 32-year-old ban on handguns as incompatible with gun rights under the Second Amendment. The decision went further than even the Bush administration wanted, but probably leaves most firearms laws intact. The court had not conclusively interpreted the Second Amendment since its ratification in 1791. The amendment reads: ‘‘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 basic issue for the justices was whether the amendment protects an individual’s right to own guns no matter what, or whether that right is somehow tied to service in a state militia.
Writing for the majority, Justice Antonin Scalia said that an individual right to bear arms is supported by ‘‘the historical narrative’’ both before and after the Second Amendment was adopted.

The Constitution does not permit ‘‘the absolute prohibition of handguns held and used for self-defense in the home,’’ Scalia said. The court also struck down Washington’s requirement that firearms be equipped with trigger locks or kept disassembled, but left intact the licensing of guns."

Justice Anthony Kennedy was once again the swing vote. You may remember that Kennedy was appointed by Reagan back in 1987. He was not Reagan's first choice. Robert Bork was but his nomination was defeated. What might have been if Bork had ultimately been confirmed instead of Kennedy.

It's been 2,680 days since there has been an attack on US soil. Good day and God bless.