HAH.

[agilebrit]

The Supreme Court got one right!

I'm seeing via my flist (which is how I'm getting most of my news these days, and just how nerdy is that?) that the Supreme Court has upheld a lower court's ruling that the 2nd Amendment right to keep and bear arms is, indeed, an individual right.

Not only that, but Justice Scalia puts in some lovely word-geekery in his opinion:

The Amendment’s prefatory clause announces a purpose, but does not limit or expand the scope of the second part, the operative clause. The operative clause’s text and history demonstrate that it connotes an individual right to keep and bear arms.

Yay! Now that's an excellent way to start my day.

Comments

[fenchurche.livejournal.com]

I was very pleased and, frankly, a bit surprised. I was figuring it would come out 5-4 in the other direction, considering the political leanings of five of the Justices.

[fierynotes.livejournal.com]

I'm a very bad liberal -- I agree that the right to keep and bear arms is, and must remain, an individual right. I'm impressed, but not surprised, by Scalia's insistence on parsing the text strictly literally -- he is a hardcore textualist, after all.

No doubt I'll compensate for my shortcomings as a liberal with a pro-choice rant later today. Well, no. I've already posted a few of those...

[agilebrit.livejournal.com]

You don't have shortcomings as a liberal! You're a maverick! ;)

[neo-prodigy.livejournal.com]

I'm very ambivalent when it comes to guns.

On the one hand I think they're destructive and there are too many of them in the world.

On the other hand I'm a firm believer in the second amendment and I'll probably own a gun at some point.

But yeah I agree with the decision.

[redeem147.livejournal.com]

Man, our opinions on some things are sooooo different. :)

We don't have a second amendment to consider, and I'm all for banning guns.

[agilebrit.livejournal.com]

Except gun bans don't work. Witness Washington DC, which has one of the highest gun murder rates in the country, if not the highest...and, up until today, handguns were banned there.

But, yeah, the Hubby is a life member of the NRA and a concealed-carry permit holder. I think that self-defense is a civil right. So, my opinion on this will probably be vastly different from not only yours, but 70% of the other people on LJ as well. ;)

[redeem147.livejournal.com]

My brother-in-law is a gun owner and a hunter, and would probably agree with you. I, on the other hand, am so liberal I bleed red.

Okay, that probably means more in my country...

[bojojoti.livejournal.com]

I'm glad to see a right not be eroded.