It was expected, and now it is confirmed. I’m sure you’ve already heard it on the radio, or the TV. The U.S. Supreme Court WILL hear the first Second Amendment case in 68 years.
..After a hiatus of 68 years, the Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to rule on the meaning of the Second Amendment — the hotly contested part of the Constitution that guarantees “a right to keep and bear arms.” Not since 1939 has the Court heard a case directly testing the Amendment’s scope — and there is a debate about whether it actually decided anything in that earlier ruling. In a sense, the Court may well be writing on a clean slate if, in the end, it decides the ultimate question: does the Second Amendment guarantee an individual right to have a gun for private use, or does it only guarantee a collective right to have guns in an organized military force such as a state National Guard unit?
Washington D.C.’s gun laws are some of the most restrictive in the country, banning handguns, and requiring long guns to be kept disassembled, or at least trigger locked, which defeats the whole purpose of having an individual firearm for self and home protection. Some had expected the Surpemem Court to only address the “individual right” aspect of the case, but from their announcement today it appears they are going to look into the whole thing, and consider the constitutionality of the “disassembled” part of the law as well.
..The local law at issue in Heller has been discussed widely as a sweeping ban on private possession or use of handguns. But the Court order granting review took it a step further: the one section that will be at issue that goes beyond handguns is the provision that requires that any gun kept at home be unloaded and disassembled, or at least be locked. Thus, that provision also applies to rifles and shotguns kept at home, in terms of whether those weapons would remain “functional” in time of emergency if that provision were upheld. That part of the order appeared to widen the inquiry in a way that the local residents who challenged the law had wanted.
Bite your fingernails until next summer. Even with Bush’s two new justices, it is truly difficult to tell how they will see this case. I’m of the “individual right” persuasion myself, but the Court has no precedents with which to try to forecast where they will come down on it. The comment stream over at Hot Air is pretty interesting. Lots of “cold dead fingers” talk, and gloomy predictions. I don’t think so. I’m more optimistic than that, but it will be close, no matter what. And it will certainly put a lot of pressure on the candidates before the next election. All the “can I get me a huntin’ license” politicians will fly like a covey of quail. It’ll be a good test of where we are on the slippery slope, that’s for sure.
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