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The DC Gun Ban
March 12, 2007
Last Friday a federal
appeals court in Washington DC issued a ruling that hopefully will
result in the restoration of 2nd Amendment rights in the
nation's capital. It appears the Court
rejected the District of Columbia 's nonsensical argument that the 2nd
Amendment confers only a "collective right," something gun control
advocates have asserted for years.
Of course we should not have
too much faith in our federal courts to protect gun rights, considering
they routinely rubber stamp egregious violations of the 1 st,
4th, and 5th Amendments, and allow Congress to
legislate wildly outside the bounds of its enumerated powers. Furthermore, the DC case will be appealed to
the Supreme Court with no guarantees. But
it is very important nonetheless for a federal court only one step
below the highest court in the land to recognize that gun rights adhere
to the American people, not to government-sanctioned groups. Rights, by definition, are individual. "Group rights" is an oxymoron.
Can anyone seriously contend that the Founders, who had just expelled their British rulers mostly by use of light arms, did not want the individual farmer, blacksmith, or merchant to be armed? Those individuals would have been killed or imprisoned by the King's soldiers if they had relied on a federal armed force to protect them.
Can anyone seriously contend that the Founders, who had just expelled their British rulers mostly by use of light arms, did not want the individual farmer, blacksmith, or merchant to be armed? Those individuals would have been killed or imprisoned by the King's soldiers if they had relied on a federal armed force to protect them.
In the 1700s, militias were
local groups made up of ordinary citizens. They
were not under federal control! As a
practical matter, many of them were barely under the control of
colonial or state authorities. When the 2nd
Amendment speaks of a "well-regulated militia," it means local groups
of individuals operating to protect their own families, homes, and
communities. They regulated themselves
because it was necessary and in their own interest to do so.
The Founders themselves
wrote in the Federalist papers about the need for individuals to be
armed. In fact, James Madison argued in
Federalist paper 46 that common citizens should be armed to guard
against the threat posed by the newly proposed standing federal army.
Today, gun control makes
people demonstrably less safe-- as any honest examination of criminal
statistics reveals. In his book "More Guns, Less Crime," scholar John
Lott demolishes the myth that gun control reduces crime. On the
contrary, Lott shows that cities with strict gun control--like
Washington DC--experience higher rates of murder and violent crime. It is no coincidence that violent crime
flourishes in the nation's capital, where the individual's right to
defend himself has been most severely curtailed.
Understand that residents of
DC can be convicted of a felony and put in prison simply for having a
gun in their home, even if they live in a very dangerous neighborhood. The DC gun ban is no joke, and the legal
challenges to the ban are not simply academic exercises.
People's lives and safety are at stake.
