Jack & Jill Politics

From The NYTimes.com

Supreme Court Rules That Individuals Have Gun Rights
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: June 26, 2008
Filed at 10:16 a.m. ET

Court Weighs Right to Guns, and Its Limits
(March 19) WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court says Americans have a right to own guns for self-defense and hunting, the justices’ first major pronouncement on gun rights in U.S. history.

The court’s 5-4 ruling strikes down the District of Columbia’s 32-year-old ban on handguns as incompatible with gun rights under the Second Amendment. The decision goes further than even the Bush administration wanted, but probably leaves most firearms laws intact.

The court had not conclusively interpreted the Second Amendment since its ratification in 1791. The amendment reads: “A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.”

The basic issue for the justices was whether the amendment protects an individual’s right to own guns no matter what, or whether that right is somehow tied to service in a state militia.

I agree with this decision. I am a firm supporter of the Second Amendment. I have long believed that Gun Control Laws, as written, only protect the criminals, and leave us law-abiding citizens up a creek. I have never owned a gun. It is a personal choice for me, but since I’m a law-abiding citizen, if I woke up one day and decided I DID want to own one, I don’t believe I should be restricted by government. I am fully willing to go through any registration process that is set out, and see no problem with background checks and waiting periods.

UPDATE: Before you think that I’m a non-thinking NRA Member, I part company with the NRA, and quite frankly, get angry with them for not going for the middle. I don’t believe that a lot of people who oppose guns want to literally take them from gun owners. I believe that a lot of them would just love to sit in a room with the gun owners from the rural and plains states and just ask them:

Why do you let the punks pimp you the way that they do?

I, for instance, don’t believe it’s a hardship to limit gun ownership to one gun a month. No sane person needs more than one a month. You a collector? You get to collect 12 a year.

I also believe gun shows should be very regulated. I believe it SHOULD be easy to trace a gun from the moment it rolls off the assembly line. And, if you’re a law-abiding citizen, you should want that too.

Why let those who are shady pimp off of you by yelling ‘Gun Rights’. It’s not right. The decent gun owner needs to stand up to the sleaze. They need to detach themselves from the sleaze, understanding that compromise doesn’t mean you’ll be turning in your guns.