Thursday, June 26, 2008

The right to bear, barely

The United States Supreme Court decided today that your individual right to possess firearms shall not be infringed. The decision came down 5 for and 4 against. A win's a win, but this was a narrow victory. As a gun owner, lifetime NRA member, and all around great guy I obviously think the court made the correct decision. But don't kid yourself, I'm not happy.

I'm not happy that it took the Supreme Court to prevent the Bill of Rights from being reduced by one. It would take about 10 minutes of internet research for the average second grader to see that the founders of our country and framers of our constitution intended to protect the individual right of gun ownership.

And more importantly, I'm not happy that if 4 U.S. Supreme Court justices had had their way the individual right of gun ownership would be effectively erased from the constitution. Even if you don't care about the right to bear arms this should concern you, because the next time the court may be deciding a constitutionally guaranteed right that you do care about.

I'll finish with a rhetorical question for those who believe it doesn't matter who is President. Do you really think that if the last two Supreme Court justices had been appointed by President John Kerry today's monumental ruling would have been the same?

1 comment:

The Archduke of Arrogance said...

Good post. It seems like a lot of work just to keep something we already had. I was glad to hear Lapierre say that now we are going on offense.