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Supreme Court decision on Second Amendment

When you live in a state like California, which has a government in which the Democratic majority of the State Legislature (or even, sometimes, the Republican Governor), “doesn’t get it” with regard to U.S. Constitutional Rights, a day like today should be celebrated. Today, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 (PDF) that “The Second Amendment provides Americans a fundamental right to bear arms that cannot be violated by state and local governments…” as stated by The Washington Post. The case was MCDONALD ET AL. v. CITY OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ET AL.

What could be a more fitting prelude to Independence Day on July 4?

The Post states:

“The decision extended the court’s 2008 ruling in District of Columbia v. Heller that ‘the Second Amendment protects a personal right to keep and bear arms for lawful purposes, most notably for self-defense within the home.’ That decision applied only to federal laws and federal enclaves such as Washington; it was the first time the court had said there was an individual right to gun ownership rather than one related to military service.”

It may have been the first time for the U.S. Supreme Court, but the Founding Fathers stated it, quite simply, a LONG time ago! :-) The Post continues:

No cities have laws as restrictive as the handgun bans in the District and in Monday’s case from Chicago and its suburb of Oak Park. Although the court’s decision did not specifically strike down those laws, Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley said it will make the city’s 28-year-old law ‘unenforceable.’

I am not so sure that there are no other cities with such restrictive laws. Just as California has trouble looking eastward over the mountains, the East Coast has trouble seeing westward of the Mississippi River, sometimes. :-)

The decision was “a great moment in American history,” said Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president of the National Rifle Association, marking the occasion when “the Second Amendment becomes a real part of constitutional law.”

And then there is the statement in the Washington Post:

“And the court’s designation of gun ownership as a fundamental right, like freedom of speech, will provide a tool for those who want to challenge restrictive local laws.”

The Post goes on to describe the importance of the 14th Amendment in the decision, and the fact that the Bill of Rights was conceived as a set of restrictions of the power of the federal government (which concerned a number of the framers of the Constitution).

“Although it might seem unsurprising to most that the Bill of Rights applies to states and cities, it was conceived as a restriction on the federal government. In the past century, the court has said most amendments also apply to state and local governments.”

“Until Monday, the court had not extended the Second Amendment, which holds that ‘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.'”

Once again, the majority of the Supreme Court justices showed the wisdom of the Founding Fathers in creating a system of checks and balances in the government of the United States.

-Bill at

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