America… another day, another mass shooting.
Only one month after the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history took place in Las Vegas, the most deadly mass shooting in Texas state history has taken place at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs.
In a country awash in gun violence, people are angry. They ask, “When will enough be enough? When will the madness end? When will our lawmakers enact gun regulations that might help stem the tide in this seemingly endless wave of gunphilia insanity?”
As if on cue, politicians have once again offered up their “thoughts and prayers.” Yet the American people want something more … they want action.
While anger continues to grow against our feckless politicians, bought and paid for by the NRA, one government institution seems to have escaped blame … the Supreme Court.
On June 26, 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its controversial ruling in District of Columbia v. Heller. In a 5-4 decision, the Court ruled that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual right to possess firearms independent of service in a state militia and to use firearms for traditionally lawful purposes, including self-defense within the home.
The NRA, and gun enthusiasts everywhere, hailed the decision as an affirmation of unfettered gun ownership. While this reading of the Court’s ruling is misguided and a clear misinterpretation, let’s leave that aside for the moment (read: The Supreme Court Ruling On The 2nd Amendment Did NOT Grant An Unlimited Right To Own Guns by David Ropeik).
Thanks to Justices Roberts, Thomas, Alito, Kennedy and Scalia, we have the NRA trumpeting its false narrative that the Constitution absolutely protects one’s right to bear arms.
In his dissent, Justice John Paul Stevens wrote that the Second Amendment does not create an unlimited right to possess guns for self-defense purposes. Instead, the most natural reading of the Amendment is that it protects the right to keep and bear arms for certain military purposes but does not curtail the legislature’s power to regulate nonmilitary use and ownership of weapons. Justice Stevens argued that the Amendment states its purpose specifically in relation to state militias and does not address the right to use firearms in self-defense, which is particularly striking in light of similar state provisions from the same time that do so.
No, let’s not let the above-mentioned activist judges off so easy. They are one of the main reasons why mass shootings have dramatically escalated in the last ten years.
The Heller decision was, ironically, the very kind of judicial overreach conservatives constantly rail against.
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John: You hit the nail on the head. And now the NRA sends their money to 99% of the GOP represenattive. So who’s fooling who? These guys are married to the NRA and will do nothing not to be able to grab at the money that comes along with supporting the NO background, NO AR-15 ban, NO Automatic ban, NO No Fly list ban, etc. And the Clown in Chief says its a mental health issue. Yeah, his. What a clown and his minions eat it up. Thoughts and prayers. That’s all you can expect from this president and congress.
The Heller decision was the kind of judicial activism Republicans like!
Let’s not forget the shameful origins of the Second Amendment — a sop to slave-holding states to enshrine their right to form militias to hunt down and capture runaway slaves. The federal government had no standing army and probably would not have deployed it for this purpose even if it had. This was a sideways endorsement of the Peculiar Institution relegating to states the power to enforce it. This ill-conceived stain on our Constitution should be repealed.
Great point. Thanks.