McDonald decision changes little, gun control still on the move
Yesterday the Supreme Court ruled that the City of Chicago’s handgun ban was unconstitutional and the right to keep and bear arms is fundamental to the Constitution.
Many have called this a stunning victory, but before you pop the cork on the champagne you’ve been saving for a special occasion, let me warn you: the devil is in the details.
This decision does not fundamentally change our continued need to fight to preserve and advance our right to keep and bear arms.
In the majority opinion, Justice Samuel Alito stated, “We made it clear in Heller that our holding did not cast doubt on such longstanding regulatory measures as “prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill,” “laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings, or laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms.” Id., at ___–___ (slip op., at 54–55). We repeat those assurances here. Despite municipal respondents’ doomsday proclamations, incorporation does not imperil every law regulating firearms.
What Justice Alito and the court is saying is simple: your right to keep and bear arms is fundamentally guaranteed so long as you abide by the state and federal laws which restrict those same rights.
In the end, some of the worst gun control may be struck down. In some cases, it may only take a few months. Other cases will grind through repeal after repeal. More supreme court cases in 2-5 years are all but guaranteed.
Meanwhile, anti-gunners will seize on every upheld state law as an opportunity to pass new gun control and they will respond to every defeated gun control law with new legislation designed to continue their anti-gun crusade (as congress did with the gun-free school law after it was struck down and the District of Columbia after losing in the Heller case).
Even anti-gun groups like New Yorkers Against Gun Violence are trumpeting the ruling and pointing out that wording of the ruling means, “your [Second Amendment] rights can be restricted.”
Chicago Mayor Richard Daley is already plotting to pass a host of new restrictions on handgun ownership in Chicago, which may follow the letter of the Court’s decision, but will make the requirements for ownership so onerous that the ban will remain in all but name.
Now more than ever gun owners must be active in the public policy arena. The anti-gunners in Washington D.C. and State Legislatures across the country are sure to be preparing the next round of attacks against our rights.
In D.C. anti-gunners like Diane Feinstein and Chuck Schumer want to ban all private firearms sales, and Hillary Clinton is working hard to force United Nations gun bans on American citizens.
And in states legislatures many of the little details of our right to keep and bear arms are under assault – and are being compromised – every day.
Make no mistake, the McDonald decision is not a magic bullet that will reverse generations of gun control legislation.
The only way to fight the anti-gunners is to organize grassroots activists and to turn up the heat on anti-gun politicians.
Gun owners like you must continue to organize in grassroots groups like the National Association for Gun Rights. You and I must continue to put pressure on anti-gun politicians both in your local state house and in Washington D.C.
Dear Sirs,
While I admit the perfect outcome isn’t here, there is reason to hope. The anti-incumbancy mood (due to the economy) is so severe, I look for a clean sweep at the Nov. mid-terms. Our two-party gamesters will “get the message”, when nationally known incumbants like Reid and McCain get their ballot box pink slips. Newbies will blow off the party line games knowing if they don’t, they will be next. Then the whitehouse has to square sole federal border control (Constututional duty not being executed) with states regulating the 2nd Amendment (individual Constitutional right). And lastly, the conflict with the California medicinal Weed issue (states rights)vs FDA ban (no ennumerated Constitutional power). See the hypocrasy? The executive branch just can’t have it all. And they wont.
Sceptical, I hope you are right. Unfortunately Obama is a fanatical, Muslim, Marxist, Communist. I strongly suspect that no matter whether he gets re-elected or not, he will try to to his worst to change this country into a one party, government controlled, Socialist country that gives the most rights to Muslims. He has even said that he would rather be a “good” 1 term president than a “bad” 2 term president.
Even so, we must do our best to get a majority of pro Constitution, Conservative, Republicans in the House, Senate and in the Presidency.
Albert,
The “Progressive Liberals” are far more dangerous to a free society than obvious Communists, they are knowingly or unknowingly followers of the Frankfurt School.
Many of them mean well,but are what Uncle Joe Stalin called useful idiots.
They wish to “save” the West from capitalism by stealth.
As usual most have moved up the financial ladder far enough to be insulated from the damage caused.
Search the net for Peter Hitchens and the Frankfurt School to see what we are up against.
Only by knowing your enemy, you can defeat him !
Actually, it was V.I. Lenin that called those who unwittingly helped advance the cause of Socialism, Marxism and Communism “useful idiots”…and these little creeps run by the Alinsky playbook…look it up and educate yourself…ol’ Jon Stewart and Colbert and that Bill Maher creep are three who run by the tenant of making fun of folks ’cause its hard to defend against…that is why Second Amendment folks always need a short, rational, to the point argument…ask things of anti-firearms folks like “Would you put a gun-free zone sign on your house”? or “Would it be better for your wife/girlfriend/sister/mom to be raped or to carry a firearm for defense”? These straight forward questions make them think, and they HATE that…anyway, REMEMBER IN NOVEMBER, its a start.
Hate to take a idea from Democrat playbook and a of course the crisis themselves but as they say “Never Let A Good Crisis Go To Waste” the economic crisis, immigration reform, path to socialism just might be enough to fire up the masses. The 1st amendment is the voice of the people but ultimately it’s the 2nd amendment that enables the right of the people to keep it. The inalienable right to life doesn’t end at your home or property line. We need a need a national right to carry a firearm which cannot be denied by the state or local government.
If you outlaw guns, only outlaws will have guns. I am a Liberal, but I have no problem telling other Liberals to quit wiping their a**es with the Constitution. I hate what they are doing, as it is no different than The Patriot Act.
[...] we previously mentioned, the McDonald decision changes very little about the legal landscape facing gun owners. Your right [...]
[...] we previously mentioned, the McDonald decision changes very little about the legal landscape facing gun owners. Your right [...]
Sinic, I agree with you that the label, “progressive”, is much worse than the label Communist even though they mean the same thing; because as you say, “They wish to save the world from Capitalism by stealth.”. It is by stealth that they fool the people into believing that Progressiveness is a good thing.