More Parker Stuff
Yes, a Supreme Court ruling that DC’s total handgun ban and extreme “safe” storage law violate the Second Amendment would indeed apply to the entire country, either immediately after Parker or as soon as a substantially identical case from a state made its way through the courts. But think about it: how many states (or cities within states) can you name that take their gun control to anywhere near the level that DC does? I can only think of one major city, Chicago, along with a few of its suburbs. New York City has a rather Byzantine licensing scheme that arguably operates as a de facto ban, so let’s count them too. That’s two whole cities, plus a few suburbs, that DeBonis describes as “the rest of the country.” That could really suck for Fenty later in his career if he moves to New York or Chicago to run for mayor there. Otherwise, not so much.
But its possible, just possible, that he’s going to appeal this only to give DC more time to develop a new gun control measure and then drop the case later on.
July 18th, 2007 at 9:33 am
I predict that the Supremes will uphold the DC handgun prohibition. Our elite prefers unarmed peasants. It doesn’t matter whether they’re liberal or conservative.
July 21st, 2007 at 5:01 pm
All of the above is certainly possible…but the Parker decision is still better than the alternative. I think that gun laws are generally going in the right direction, although perhaps not in a strict ideological sense.
For example, Florida has no-retreat everywhere, Texas soon with have the Castle Doctrine and Tennessee repealed the prohibition against guns in state parks (the last one after VA Tech). On the other hand, I cannot think of recent comparable instances anywhere in the country that are heading in the direction of making another NYC, DC, or IL. Maybe I’m missing something, but it seems to me that things are becoming freer over the long run.
Of course, strictly speaking, the very fact that FL, TX, etc are passing laws granting me the Rights I ought to have by virtue of being a human being is insulting, while the enthusiastic response from people who supposedly believe in the Constitution as written is nothing short of terrifying. It’s a bit like making a deal with the Devil, but he is governmental counterpart doesn’t seem to exist, let alone being listening.