Marc Fischer, a local columnist for the Washington Post, has a column on the Supreme Court's taking of the appeal by DC of the Second Amendment decision. For what it's worth (nothing), I agree with his take--the court's going to decide that DC can't ban handguns but can regulate them. Which is about where we ought to end up. If we can take car keys away from senior citizens who can't drive safely, we can (and should) also take guns away from people who can't shoot safely.
I'd treat guns like cars. Every American, even including illegal immigrants, has the right to drive a car, once they've been tested.
2 comments:
I know this was not your point in the blog but.....
I would question were in the Constitution is says that I as an American have the "Right to Drive a Car".
Also I would not consider an illegal immigrant an American. Much the same if I immigrate to Germany illegally I am not German, but still an American.
Okay, let me rephrase my points:
* the Constitution doesn't say anything about a lot of "rights" we have--the right to buy a horse (which undoubtedly everyone in 1789 had) or its equivalent today--a car. Few really believe that our "rights" are absolute--should a five-year-old be able to buy a gun? Fischer points out that NRA is for "reasonable" gun regulation, just as the Brady org is. They differ on the definition of "reasonable".
* I want everyone who shares the road with me to be a licensed driver, whether a native American, a native-born American, a naturalized citizen, a foreign tourist, someone with a student visa or a greencard, or an illegal immigrant. When it comes to threatening my life, that's more important than legal status.
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