Charlottesville
June 23, 2022
Humpf. Did our Founding Fathers carry around handguns to protect themselves?
Im sure many are happy with today’s Supreme Court’s decision. As the Joyrnal reports:
The 6-3 decision in the case, New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. Bruen, marks the widest expansion of gun rights since 2010, when the court applied nationwide a 2008 ruling establishing an individual right of armed self-defense within the home. It puts in question similar laws in at least eight other states and the District of Columbia, where authorities hold substantial discretion over issuing concealed-weapons permits.
It just seems odd that we are expanding gun rights and overturning a 100 year old law. I guess that doesn’t pass the Alito test about historical practice.
Several years ago I was pumping gas at a gas station in South Carolina. The guy next to me had a large handgun in a holster dangling from his belt. It scared the crap out of me. How about my rights?
I don‘t want to live in a place we’re the norm is to be armed 24/7. id be ok if this were up to states — we are moving toward a time where there are states I will not live in. But thanks to the Second Amendment states aren’t free to establish their own standards on this matter. Unfortunate.
Part of Justice Thomas' ruling:
"The constitutional right to bear arms in public for self-defense is not 'a second-class right, subject to an entirely different body of rules than the other Bill of Rights guarantees,'" Thomas wrote in the opinion joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett.
Thomas added that there is "no other constitutional right" that requires a person to demonstrate some sort of special need to government officers in order to obtain a concealed carry permit.
"That is not how the First Amendment works when it comes to unpopular speech or the free exercise of religion. It is not how the Sixth Amendment works when it comes…
If restrictions on who can have guns legally led to safety, the Democrat-run cities of America would be the safest places on earth. Gun laws only make it hard for law-abiding people to obtain a firearm for self defense, for hunting, for sport or pleasure. The safest place I think I have ever been was at the gun show out at Dulles.....
What do 98.5% of all mass shootings over the past thirty years in America have in common? They took place in gun-free zones.
I would not concur with the characterization that the Supreme Court opinion "expanded" gun rights but rather that they did not concur with New York's position to limit the rights to obtain a concealed carry permit. "New York is one of a handful of states still holding on to “may issue” concealed carry laws. In other words, your right to legally carry a firearm outside your home for self-defense has not been something you could exercise in New York State without providing a justifiable reason to do so. Without such cause your right was restricted to owning a gun inside your home."