It's such a weird country. Americans have a constitutional right to shoot each other but not to universal health care or to marry someone you love if they're the same sex as you.From ABC News...
Appeals court rejects D-C gun ban
March 09, 2007 14:00 EST
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A long-standing ban on handguns in Washington, D-C, is being overturned by a federal appeals court.
The court is rejecting the city's argument that the Second Amendment right to bear arms only applies to militias.
A lower-court judge had told six D-C residents three years ago that they don't have a constitutional right to own handguns. The plaintiffs include residents of high-crime neighborhoods who wanted the guns for protection.
In today's two-to-one decision, the judge held that the Second Amendment doesn't just apply to militia service, or to people with "intermittent enrollment in the militia."
I don't really see it as a big deal. Living in Maine, a relatively quiescent place (crime rate: 60% below the national average) that nonetheless has among the highest per capita gun ownership, it's never been a big issue for me. I focus on the things you mentioned rather than gun control, as I'm neutral on the issue but strongly pro gay marriage and pro-national health care.
ReplyDeleteTyler, I think it is a big deal. The situation is even worse than what's mentioned in Larry's post: There is an all too successful movement to pass "right to carry" laws in the individual states and it's working. "Right to carry" means the right to carry a concealed weapon, and the laws are changing to not only allow that but to make such a license easy to obtain.
ReplyDeleteA friend of mine claims to have gotten a "carry" license from Florida without even going there (just through the mail) and the license is recognized in his state where it is harder to get one. He also proudly showed off his pistol-grip shotgun (not a hunting weapon) which he thinks every home should have in case of an intruder -- and he lives in one the lowest crime places in the USA. And he knows the data that shows that having a firearm in the home means you or a family member are most likely to be the one shot with it.
Okay, so there may only be so many gun nuts that want to walk around with a pistol on their hip or a crowd-control shotgun in the house, but I sure don't like living in a society where that is not only legal but encouraged. The same groups supporting this are supporting a new more liberal interpretation of the right to kill someone in self-defense. (You don't have to show your life was in danger or tried to avoid the situation.)
Pure insanity. Is it any wonder that doctors from other, more civilized, parts of the world come to city hospitals in places like Detroit and Philadelphia to learn how to treat bullet wounds?