Showing posts with label Heller. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Heller. Show all posts

Friday, September 12, 2008

D.C. citizens may finally get gun rights

The New York Times editorial board has got their panties all in a wad again over a new gun law, so it must be good news for gun owners.

Congress is considering a bill that appears likely to pass that would finally give Washington D.C. residents their constitutional right to bear arms that the U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled is rightfully theirs in the D.C. vs. Heller case. The D.C. council has been dragging their feet since the ruling, still refusing to allow district residents to lawfully own firearms, even in their own homes much less in concealed carry out on the streets.

So Congress in stepping in. Though I’ve not read the bill’s particulars, if 50 Democrats and the GOP are for it and the NYT is against it, I’m for it.

In high snit (or as we say down South, “throwing a hissy fit”) the NYT board proclaims:

This extreme bill goes way beyond what the high court required. Among other things, it would repeal a ban on semiautomatic assault weapons and eliminate firearm registration requirements, even for such things as sniper rifles and small, easily concealed semiautomatic handguns. Under the lunatic logic of this bill, made to order for the gun lobby, such rifles could be toted around on the street fully loaded.

The bill currently has the support of about 50 Democrats and most Republicans, so it will be hard to stop approval in the House. Many members, running for re-election in communities that are heavily opposed to gun control, simply will not challenge the National Rifle Association.

Ooh! Sniper rifles! Assault weapons! Easily concealed handguns! Sounds like a pretty good bill to me. And that snippy part about the “lunatic logic” of openly toting a fully loaded rifle on the street? In every state of the Union, that’s known as “open carry.” It’s also known as “hunting.”

Saturday, September 6, 2008

Obama's gold medal in linguistic gymnastics on guns

Hugh Hewitt has the latest linguistic gymnastics from Obama as he tries to explain away his gun-control record. After all, he's "always been for an individual right" to keep and bear arms, as he so hypocritically said after the Supreme Court ruled in the recent Heller vs. D.C. case that the Second Amendment is an individual right.
There was a lot of audio today, including Barack Obama's tutorial on the Second Amendment, which began with his declaration that he believed the Second Amendment was an "individual right," and which concluded with what was intended to be the reassuring declaration that there was no need to worry because he didn't have the votes he needed in Congress to take away your guns even if he wanted to. Which he doesn't want to. He just wants to take away the guns of kids in inner city Philadelphia. Though he neglected to provide us with the test for determining which people can have guns in Philly and which can't. A difficult standard to articulate, yes, but since he obviously has something in mind, he may want to share it with us.

Two points.

First, "his" view on the Second Amendment is irrelevant. The Supreme Court declared the Second Amendment to be an individual right. Imagine Obama saying "My view is that you have the right to believe whatever you want about God."

Second, Obama's understanding of what "individual right" means is suspect when he, in nearly the same breath, asserts that gun rights can be modified by Congressional action. Not some gun rights in some circumstances, but all guns from all people.

UPDATE: Here's the exact quote on the reality in the Congress:

“Even if I want to take them away, I don’t have the votes in Congress."

Again, some right when all it takes to remove anyone's gun is a statute.

For more details on the Obama ramble, see this account which oddly left off Obama's aside about Congress.

It was classic Obama: He said next to nothing at great length but tried very hard to make it sound deeply thoughtful when it was in fact nonsense.
Any gun owner who doesn't understand by now the Second Amendment differences between McCain and Palin vs. Obama and Biden, let me give you the short version. McCain and Palin are strongly for our constitutional Right To Keep and Bear Arms, Obama and Biden are strongly against it. Simple as that.