DC gun ban appeal at the USSC
The Supreme Court is listening to arguments for and against DC’s gun ban – the first time the Second Amendment will be discussed among the judiciaries for more than 70 years. The 33-year-old DC law absolutely forbids private ownership of handguns and shotguns and requires long gun owners to have their weapons rendered useless and in pieces, locked away. It is arguably the most draconian of gun regulations in the country. The Washington Examiner prints the District’s main points before the court;
Dellinger, along with D.C. Solicitor General Todd Kim, Akin Gump partner Thomas Goldstein and Covington & Burling’s Robert Long, will argue the case on three points: That the city’s existing law is manifestly reasonable, that the District has the same right as states to restrict firearms, and that the 2nd Amendment speaks only to state militias, not individuals.
Well, let’s look at the Second Amendment;
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.
On first blush, the District could have a point on the fact that amendment “speaks only to State militias”, however, that’s without understanding the main reason for the entire Constitution – to protect people from their government. A “militia”, using today’s terms, is also an arm of government – the entity that the Constitution recognized as the main enemy of personal freedom.
I will not argue that the District doesn’t have the same right as States to reasonably restrict gun ownership, however, that’s not a carte blanche to forbid ownership by law abiding citizens. Contrary to what I’ve been told by the Left, the Right doesn’t agree that mentally-impaired people and criminals (what’s the difference really) should have guns. A DC judge once told me that the NRA thinks everyone should own guns – that’s just bogus leftist crap used to cloud the issue of the Second Amendment.
But the District also claims their regulations are “reasonable” – reasonable to the point that law abiding citizens are unable to protect themselves and their families from gun-wielding malcontents. That’s not even in the same ball park as “reasonable”.
By the Metro Police’s own admission, they recovered almost 2300 illegal weapons from DC’s streets last year (2007). Thirty three years after the law was enacted, DC cops are still taking an average of six guns everyday from law breakers – that’s 6 guns everyday since 2002. That tells me that the only people who aren’t armed are the people who don’t break laws. So how can the District argue that’s it’s reasonable for anyone except criminals.
