Says James Taranto, inviting Obamans to make gun control a big campaign issue. The Supreme Court's recent cases finding an individual right to bear arms were decided by a 5-man majority, 2 of whom (Antonin Scalia and Anthony Kennedy) are in their late 70s. Ruth Bader Ginsburg (who's 79) and Stephen Breyer (who's 73) dissented. We don't know whether any (or all!) of them will leave the Court in the next 4 years or whether the Court will revisit its Second Amendment jurisprudence, but the point is, if gun control becomes an issue, those who care about gun rights might be induced to get quite excited over Supreme Court appointments.
Now, it's my perception that the gun control issue has already played out. There had to be that clamor that we heard over the weekend, but it was a clamor without legs.
Their coats were brushed, their faces washed,
Their shoes were clean and neat —
And this was odd, because, you know,
They hadn't any feet.
पोस्ट्स
४४ टिप्पण्या:
Clamor Vincit Omnia
A second Obama term would fuck us up big time but it wouldn't have much affect on our Second Amendment rights.
You made my day with the 'toon.
Still 7% as opposed to 8.2% is pretty damn good considering we're headed into another recesion.
Why would Obama bother to kill laws. He just refuses to enforce them. And Congress refuses to impeach him. And John Roberts just says the Taxing Power is the absolute power.
Le stat c'est mois is written right there on his teleprompter.
If we were unlucky enough to see another Obama term, gun control would be the least of our problems.
"Le stat c'est mois is written right there on his teleprompter."
No, I think it is apres moi le deluge
"Now, it's my perception that the gun control issue has already played out."
Russ Feingold provided a bit of insight into the liberal brain when he said:
"It's not over until we win."
Population of Wisconsin is about 5.7 million.
13,000 is about 0.2 percent of the population.
What a fuckin' tragedy.
A second Choom term would be the ruination of this country.
In comparison, Haiti would look like paradise.
otoh, considering what they may be hiding in Fast & Furious, the 2nd amendment could end an Obama second term.
Now, it's my perception that the gun control issue has already played out. There had to be that clamor that we heard over the weekend, but it was a clamor without legs.
I don't understand your perception, and I think your reference to the recent clamor is irrelevant.
Taranto's point seems to be simply that Heller could be overturned with one SCOTUS justice swap from conservative to liberal. Doesn't that seem obvious? It was basically 5-4 against incorporation of the 2nd Amendment and the definition of the latter as an "individual" right to, well, own a gun.
I may have this wrong, slightly. But if not, and if we replaced, say, Scalia, with, say, another Ginsberg, wouldn't we have a perfect path to another 5-4 decision overturning Heller?
The laughably hypocritical legal understanding of the 2nd Amendment pre-Heller lasted for decades.
From Best of the Web:
In 2010 the court decided McDonald v. Chicago, which applied the "incorporation" doctrine to the Second Amendment--that is, it held that the amendment, coupled with the 14th, forbids states as well as the feds from encroaching on the right to keep and bear arms. Sotomayor (along with Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg) joined Justice Stephen Breyer's dissent, which flatly asserted: "The Framers did not write the Second Amendment in order to protect a private right of armed self-defense."
One more appointment, and the 2nd could be gone. That doesn't mean we'll see Federal "Gun Control" laws. Instead we'll see "gun control lawsuits" in Federal Court.
Quite possibly those will be just as bad.
In comparison, Haiti would look like paradise.
Hooray hyperbole!
"Now, it's my perception that the gun control issue has already played out."
With regard to direct electoral politics, perhaps. However, a Supreme Court decision can bypass such politics once the justices are put on the court.
The SC already proved that it only takes one person to change a law from a unconstitutional mandate to a constitutional tax.
If we the citizen do not remain ever vigilant, then none of our rights are safe.
There might not be a great deal political "clammer" for gun control. But that won't matter if more hard left ideologues are added to the SCOTUS cast. A half century or so of leftist activism on the Court should have made that abundantly clear. You think the likes of Ginsberg or Breyer would hesitate for a nanosecond to strike down the 2nd Amendment because of the sentiment of the voters?
The whole strategy of the Left with respect to the judicial system since at least the Warren Court has been precisely to overrule what the electorate would otherwise accomplish through elections.
Taranto is just throwing meat to the dogs.
On the other hand, the Constitution (particularly the Bill of Rights) is less a living document today than a dead one, so whether the 2nd Amendment is touched or not is almost moot.
Of all the Amendments out there, I think the Second is the one that you shouldn't mess with. That dude wears a Gadsden flag wife beater and never sits down. He's just waiting for you start something, and it will probably end up very messy.
Our country is pro the second amendment but that doesn't mean that a liberal court wouldn't do away with our second amendment rights.
EMD said...
In comparison, Haiti would look like paradise..
Hooray hyperbole!
No hyperbole.
Choom wants as many people on welfare and he demonizes hard work.
He'd like to run the country the way the machine runs Chicago.
He'd turn the country into the same kind of Third World PC sewer that the Lefties have done to CA.
Put it all together, throw in ObamaTax, complete with death panels, and we'd would look no worse than Haiti.
That dude wears a Gadsden flag wife beater and never sits down.
Portrait of that dude, seated: link
As my good friend who has a very substantial collection of guns (and ammo) says, "They won't know I have them and damn sure not where they are." Otherwise Michael K is right
“It’s legal in the United States,” the rapper Ice-T said. “The right to bear arms is because that’s the last form of defense against tyranny."
“And do you see any link between that and this sort of instance?” Guru-Murthy challenged.
“No. Not really,” Ice-T responded. “If somebody wants to kill people, they don’t need a gun to do it.”
“Makes it easier though, doesn’t it?” the host pushed back.
“Not really. You can strap explosives on your body. They do that all the time.”
Mediate
Now, it's my perception that the gun control issue has already played out.
That's because it's an election year. There's a huge intensity gap between the two sides on gun control. Gun control advocates tend to have it fourth or fifth on their list of vote-influencing issues behind global warming and "education" (whatever that means), whereas for gun owners it trumps everything else.
That's why gun control is a huge vote loser for the party that pushes it, and every time Democrats get suckered into that fight they get beat up pretty badly.
But Taranto is right. A change in the makeup of the court is the biggest threat to the second amendment because of the lack of direct public input, and we're going to see significant turnover in the next four years.
"I doubt it," said the Carpenter
And shed a bitter tear.
With Columbine, Ft. Hood, Aurora, Virginia Tech, garden-variety high school shootings, and postal workers going postal, the future is clear...everyone needs to pack. America was built on the rough and tumble fist-full-of-dollars mentality, and there is no going back.
The Scott Walker stuff was totally off-topic.
Deleted.
By which I mean it's the violent culture, movies, computer games, glorification of violence that are driving these incidents, not the availability of guns.
By which I mean it's the violent culture, movies, computer games, glorification of violence that are driving these incidents, not the availability of guns.
But violent crime rates are going down. I think a lot of marginal cases get their taste for violence out by playing computer games and watching movies.
Only those living a different culture (gang bangers) and the really violent (James Holmes) need to act out in reality.
MayBee said...
But violent crime rates are going down. I think a lot of marginal cases get their taste for violence out by playing computer games and watching movies.
Only those living a different culture (gang bangers) and the really violent (James Holmes) need to act out in reality.
-----
The overall crime rate may be going down, but it seems to me the incident of horrific Columbine/Aurora/Virginia Tech/high school shootings are rising. Such that, I'm sorry to say, it didn't hit me that hard at all about Aurora. It's becoming old hat.
It's not enough to say these kids are emotionally unstable. They are simmering in an evironment perfect for their fantasies to come to fruition.
Deborah said: The overall crime rate may be going down, but it seems to me the incident of horrific Columbine/Aurora/Virginia Tech/high school shootings are rising.
Are they actually rising, though, or does it just seem that way because of the changes in media? Bear in mind that Columbine was a long time ago; 1999, I think (it was my freshman year in college). I wasn't even aware of Fox having a cable news outlet until 2001, and I didn't know what a blog was until at least 2006 or so. It's a different landscape now, and one that gets a lot more mileage out of these things.
A second obama term could kill the Second Amendment
Only one amendment?
He's already crossing out the part of Article II that requires him to execute the law faithfully. Or is that simply a disagreement over the meaning of the word "execute"?
On the other hand, there were only three major news outlets before the internet age. What Columbine-like occurrences happened before that, and wouldn't they have been nation-wide scandals for weeks? Like the Jim Jones mass suicide, for instance. Anyway, I guess we could wiki a list.
The Democrats are playing defense now, and several of their Congress critters are from states where they vote Democrat because they always voted Democrat, but they are also rural states with large hunting and fishing population, not to mention bitter clingers to their Bibles, etc., so they are not all that anxious to take up their gun confiscation agenda again in public, at least not before the election.
and FYI all you city slickers out there, the AR-15 type guns are not "assault rifles" nor "machine guns," but simply another type of semi-automatic rifle. And .223 ammunition is not strictly military, but also a quite popular varmint round.
(Note that some earlier "civilian" varmint rifles in .223 caliber were not designed for the more powerful .223 military round, so read the small print on the box!)
As for quantity, our former governor, and defintely a liberal Democrat, Mr. Bill Richardson, was reputed to frequently burn up 500 rounds or so when he went to the range for some target shooting of an afternoon. And that was while he was still governor and a quite busy man with governing and other stuff.
No point in talking about gun control until we get control of our borders.
A 2nd run at Obamanomics would turn this country into a Zimbabwe. And thus the 2nd Amendment would be moot.
NoBama! No thanks!
And I think most of the country sees that and that is why Obama's donations are down and he is in the red (but then being in the red is noting new to him.)
By which I mean it's the violent culture, movies, computer games, glorification of violence that are driving these incidents, not the availability of guns.
Nah, the 19th century US was far more violent than the 20th. The movies and videogames are the expression of a violent culture, not a cause.
Okay, Eric, you got me there.
टिप्पणी पोस्ट करा