Posted by
JimG on Saturday, July 22, 2006 1:18:31 PM
Hat tip to AirMotor for bringing up the issue of Second Amendment rights, and the attempts to seize guns from citizens in a time of "emergency". His note can be found here:
http://airmotor.townhall.com/Default.aspx?id=3&contentGuid=18d525fa-ebbe-4d66-8f83-1ee391c8607dI was having a similar discussion with a colleague the other day, unrelated to this Senate bill. There has not been a significant Supreme Court decision involving the Second Amendment since 1939 (other than the peripheral issue of gun-free zones around schools). Further, the Second Amendment has never been explicitly applied to the states, as have the First, Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Amendments (These rulings were rationalized by stretching the verbage of the 14th Amendment, but that is an entirely separate debate).
If I had confidence in our Supreme Court, I would almost hope for a New Orleans-like case to be appealed to the Supreme Court so that we can have a firm ruling that the right to keep and bear arms "shall not be infringed."