urbanmennonite.com

Now that I and various and sundry friends and co-workers have ranted about this morning’s ruling from the Supreme Court on the Second Amendment, time to get a little perspective.

Here’s what the ruling doesn’t do:

• Invalidate gun licensing requirements (meaning that I would still have to buy a license and register the gun)
• Change interstate rules (meaning I can’t legally nip into Virginia and buy one)
• Allow me to carry it open or unconcealed or otherwise wave it in public to scare off people (the yelling “fire in a crowded theatre” approach)
• Own it for purposes other than self-defense or hunting (no mention however of accidentally shooting myself).

What it does do:

• Allows me to own a handgun but not a barrel-nosed shotgun (I don’t get that — a gun by any other name would shoot just as deadly, right?).
• Takes the whole gun rights discussion out of the political realm and maybe helps Obama.
• Makes the soccer moms even more worried and maybe hurts McCain.
• Make it possible for even more people to accidentally shoot their teenagers sneaking in past curfew.  Expect a riveting Law & Order on it any day now!

For all that people are saying that existing laws are still valid and licensing and waiting periods and all that gun control stuff won’t be changed, the fact of the matter is that you better believe more and more legal challenges to those restrictions are going to come up.  Think the NRA is going to stop here?  Please.

And while Scalia resides in an alternative universe where SCOTUS decisions don’t have some impact on the future legality of gun restrictions, the rest of us are here — where we know better.

By the way, those four justices that dissented, they are pretty damn old and I’m not sure how much longer some of them can hold on (looking good Justice Stevens, hale and hearty!). The next President is pretty much assured a chance to appoint someone who will hear these challenges.

Just something to think about.