In a move that upholds the Second Amendment, the Supreme Court voting 5-4, (along ideological lines, naturally) struck down the ban on privately-owned weapons in the District of Columbia.
Answering a 217-year old constitutional question, the Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to have a gun, at least in one’s home. The Court, splitting 5-4, struck down a District of Columbia ban on handgun possession. Although times have changed since 1791, Justice Antonin Scalia said for the majority, “it is not the role of this Court to pronounce the Second Amendment extinct.”
Examining the words of the Amendment, the Court concluded “we find they guarantee the individual right to possess and carry weaons in case of confrontation” — in other words, for self-defense. “The inherent right of self-defense has been central to the Second Amendment right,” it added.
The individual right interpretation, the Court said, ”is strongly confirmed by the historical background of the Second Amendment,” going back to 17th Century England, as well as by gun rights laws in the states before and immediately after the Amendment was put into the U.S. Constitution.
What Congress did in drafting the Amendment, the Court said, was “to codify a pre-existing right, rather than to fashion a new one.”
Link: http://www.scotusblog.com/wp/court-a-constitutional-right-to-a-gun/
The decision brief is at this link:
http://www.scotusblog.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/07-2901.pdf
The surprise here is that Anthony Kennedy, who so fatuously wrote the majority opinion on striking down the death penalty for child rapists, actually came to his senses long enough to support the Second Amendment.
UPDATE:
Of course the D.C. asshats are doing everything they can to skirt the decesion:
WASHINGTON (WUSA) — District residents can start registering their guns today. But at least one very high profile application was already rejected.
Dick Heller is the man who brought the lawsuit against the District’s 32-year-old ban on handguns. He was among the first in line Thursday morning to apply for a handgun permit.
But when he tried to register his semi-automatic weapon, he says he was rejected. He says his gun has seven bullet clip. Heller says the City Council legislation allows weapons with fewer than eleven bullets in the clip. A spokesman for the DC Police says the gun was a bottom-loading weapon, and according to their interpretation, all bottom-loading guns are outlawed because they are grouped with machine guns.
Besides obtaining paperwork to buy new handguns, residents also can register firearms they’ve had illegally under a 180-day amnesty period.
Though residents will be allowed to begin applying for handgun permits, city officials have said the entire process could take weeks or months.
http://www.wusa9.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=74036&catid=158
The nutsacks can’t even distinguish between a semi automatic weapon and a bona fide machine gun, regardless of loading method. They probably just don’t want to.