What does right to bear arms mean?
Hold on to your handguns, America!?? Our ‘right to keep and bear arms’ is about to be tested again.??The Supreme Court is going to decide whether the District of Columbia’s ban on handguns violates the Constitution.
The High Court’s decision to take the D.C. gun ban case comes just in time for the 2008 elections.??As with most ‘hot-button’ issues, the political debate on this basic Second Amendment right will probably shed more heat than light.
‘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.’ Those 27 words, interspersed with three commas, are firmly, if not so clearly, enshrined in our Constitution and our culture.
Historians, legal experts, politicians, political scientists and ordinary Americans have long pondered the meaning of the Second Amendment.??However, this is the first time in nearly 70 years the Supreme Court has taken on this contentious issue. In 1939, the court ruled in ‘United States v. Miller’ that ‘a sawed-off shotgun transported across state lines by a bootlegger was not what the amendment’s authors had in mind when they were protecting arms needed for military service.’
The crux of the argument over gun control is this:??Does the Second Amendment convey only a collective right to gun ownership, or does it convey an individual right as well’Since 1939, almost all of our nation’s appeal courts have ruled in favor of the ‘collective right.’ However, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit took a different tack on the topic last spring. ??
A panel of three judges struck down a D.C. gun-control law, doing so on Second Amendment grounds.??They voted 2-1 that the amendment ‘protects an individual right to keep and bear arms’ and ‘once it is determined ‘ as we have done ‘ that handguns are ‘Arms’ referred to in the Second Amendment, it is not open to the District to ban them.’
Ironically, the District of Columbia has the dubious distinction of having the most draconian gun control laws in the nation ‘ and the highest rate of violent crimes in the country. ‘?
Since 1976, the D.C. gun-ban law has prohibited residents from having handguns in most circumstances.?? Incredibly, District law also requires that ‘rifles and other long guns kept in the home be unloaded and disassembled or outfitted with trigger locks.’ Fortunately, the court struck down that ludicrous law too, concluding it ‘rendered the right to possess such a weapon for self-defense virtually useless.’ ‘?
Meanwhile, the District of Columbia leads the nation in violent crimes per capita, cited in the FBI’s 2005 report on ‘Crimes in the United States.’??From murder, robbery and aggravated assault, to property crime, larceny-theft and motor vehicle theft, D.C. is not the place to be ‘ if you value your life, your possessions, and your right to ‘keep and bear arms.’
How the Supreme Court rules next year on the D.C. gun ban case could have historic implications for the 2008 elections and for our ‘right to keep and bear arms.’
Thomas B. Vaughn is an instructor at Motlow College. He can be reached by e-mail at tbvbwmi@blomand.net.