What Happens If the Supreme Court Recognizes Individual Gun Rights?
One thing seemed clear from Tuesday’s Supreme Court oral arguments in District of Columbia v. Heller: The justices are poised to recognize that the Second Amendment confers on individual Americans the right to own guns. The court’s conservatives–save Justice Clarence Thomas, who maintained his customary silence at arguments–evinced little doubt of this proposition. And even Justice Stephen Breyer seemed open to the possibility that the amendment’s right to “keep and bear arms” isn’t just about militias–though he’s inclined to uphold the D.C. handgun ban anyway. After more than two centuries of judicial negligence and intellectual head-scratching, the Second Amendment seems preponderantly likely to mean something. All of which makes Heller a kind of watershed in the making.
