Interesting Discussion on the Parker Case
December 8th, 2006 by Syd
Joe Huffman and Say Uncle are having a lively discussion on the possible implications of the Parker case (the challenge to the D.C. handgun ban)
In part he [Uncle] said:
I find the current political landscape so depressing that I just want to wrap myself up in some nice little cotton-wool sleeping bag and pretend it isn’t happening.
Obviously, it is and there’ll be no hiding from it if these attorneys prevail:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1110AP_Gun_Ban.html
If they prevail and if the Supreme Court agrees, it’s all over. Who would have thought the Supreme Court would trash the 1st Amendment — _seriously_ trash it — by criminalizing “political” speech? But, they did. If they can trivialize the 1st, imagine how unimportant they think the 2nd is.
I [Joe] replied:
I knew this was in the works and I heard about this AP story earlier today.
The gun-rights leaders have been working on this for several years. It is figured to be one of our best chances to get the Supremes to overthrow some oppressive laws. It was hoped we would have some more pro-gun judges on the Supreme Court before it made it there but it’s not entirely clear that will happen now that the Senate is control by the Democrats and more importantly the makeup of the Senate Judiciary committee. We’ll see….
My friend wrote back saying, in essence, “One should be careful what you wish for…”. This is exactly correct and why many top level people in the gun-rights movement breathed a sigh of relief when the Supremes failed to take up the case of the California assault weapon ban. In that case because it “only” affected a subset of guns it was feared the court could rule that it didn’t violate the 2nd Amendment. They could say something like, “As long as you are allowed to own at least one firearm then your rights have been met.”
For the rest, click here and here
For Jeff Knox’s thoughts on the matter, click here