June 26, 2008

The Constitution Still Applies...For Now

  As pretty much everybody knows by now, the Supreme Court has upheld the right of the individual to bear arms.

 I'm very pleased to say the least. I firmly believe that an armed citizenry is  important for individual self defence and as such is a profoundly basic human right. It is also on balance a very important public good. In an area with a concealed carry law every thief, murderer or rapist knows that his victims may have the power to end his/her life....there is no better deterrent than that.  Finally it also deters governments to a certain extent from going all Mugabe on the population....the greatest atrocities in history have been perpetrated by governments upon populations they previously disarmed.   

Lots  of  good  discussion of this can be found  most everywhere but  these  two posts by Ilya Somin over at The Volokh Conspiracy  are important in that they get beyond the general sigh of relief and giddiness current in the rightosphere regards this....and point out that there are a few caveats thrown in by Scalia...and a reminder that a 5-4 decision is very susceptible to whomever the upcoming President is.

On a related note, the all loving, all knowing, God-head-sun-king is throwing his previous positions under the bus to better position himself for reaffirming them upon us all.

UPDATE: Murdoc has a huge roundup of Heller Links.

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