Wall St Journal gave Harvard Law School professor Lawrence Tribe a place on the editorial page to air his views on the Washington DC gun ban case (DC vs Heller). DC has a drastic gun ban law that prohibits all handguns except those owned before 1974, and requires all guns to be unloaded, taken apart and locked up at home. Heller, with some help from his friends, brought suit, claiming the DC law violated the right-to-bear-arms second amendment. Heller lost in the first trial, then won on appeal, and now DC is appealing to the Supreme Court.
Tribe, in a longish column manages to say the court should not rule in favor of second amendment and not rule against it either. This sort of flip flopping is what gave us the 19 year long Exxon Valdez case, discussed here. After throwing out some vagueness to confuse the reader, Tribe suggests the Supreme Court rule that citizens can keep long guns, but not hand guns.
Let's hope the Court is wiser than Tribe. Brushing aside all the legalisms about well regulated militia, federal bans on automatic weapons (Tommy guns), and assault weapons (whatever they might be) the core of the matter is simple. Many of us citizens want arms for personal protection, and we want handguns that fit in the cash drawer, in the bedside table, and in the glove compartment, loaded and ready to fire, just in case. And, a majority of ordinary citizens feel that the second amendment guarantees us that right.
No comments:
Post a Comment