MY CONCERNS ABOUT THE HELLER DECISION

Carl F. Worden

I wish I could write that the Heller Decision that overturned the Washington DC handgun ban was a complete victory for gun owners and amounted to a full trouncing of the Brady Bunch, but alas I cannot and I will tell you why.

First, let’s remember that the explicit wording of the Second Amendment includes the words, “The right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” Nothing in the Heller Decision supports the right to bear arms; it only supports the right to keep arms that are not made useless by trigger locks or to be disassembled while stored. Further, Justice Scalia writes for the majority that, “The Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess a firearm unconnected with service in a militia, and to use that arm for traditionally lawful purposes, such as self defense within the home”.

I don’t like that wording at all. It will undoubtedly be used by gun control organizations to imply that a firearm unconnected with service in a militia could be limited to a revolver or pistol, and not a semi-automatic rifle such as an AR-15. So before you get together with the boys and hoist a few cold ones over this “victory”, I suggest you read the exact wording Scalia used in it’s entirety at:

http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/07pdf/07-290.pdf

I will withhold my further concerns until you have read this decision for yourself, and when you do, I want you to place yourself in the mindset of those Brady Bunch gun control lawyers who will attempt to construe the Heller Decision their own way, and not the way you might like to interpret it yourself.

I think you will find it to be a sobering moment.

Carl F. Worden