Published: June 28, 2008 09:57 pm            

A 21-gun salute

The Supreme Court made the right decision, barely, this week when it tossed out the District of Columbia’s ban on handguns as well as a D.C. law requiring all firearms to be stored unloaded and disassembled or with a trigger lock. The decision was a major victory for human rights.

We were happy to see the majority recognized in District of Columbia v. Heller recognized that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to own and use firearms. We were saddened to see that four of the nine justices ignored both the language of the amendment and the historical record and found the Second Amendment does not protect such a right or they find such a right but did not believe that D.C.’s far-reaching gun ban did not violate that right.

The court’s decision will not end the gun control debate. Far from it. It left many unanswered questions. For instance, do Second Amendment protections apply to state and local governments or only the federal government?

Some gun rights groups have already announced lawsuits that will seek to overturn some state and local gun control laws. We hope those lawsuits are as successful as Heller.

Americans who cherish individual liberty owe a great debt to Robert Levy, the libertarian lawyer who conceived and financed the challenge to D.C.’s gun laws. He found himself opposed, at times, not only by the D.C. government and gun control groups but the Bush administration and the National Rifle Association. But he, his fellow lawyers and their client persevered, and we are all just a little more free because of it.



The Daily Citizen

        

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