United States
America's Strange Love Affair with Guns, Fixation on 'Freedom' Lives On
Victoria Times-Colonist (British Columbia), Column
22 Mar 2008
How incredible it is that in the U.S., where so many people have been killed by gunfire for decades, the country's Supreme Court is just now getting around to deciding what the constitutional right to have and carry guns means. This week the court indicated that it's ready to interpret the Second Amendment. It was seized with an appeal from a federal appeals court ruling last year that declared the District of Columbia's near-ban on handguns unconstitutional. There's been a lot of controversy already about what the amendment means because of the way it's written: "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of... ( gunpolicy.org )
United States
US Supremes Should Agree, 2nd Amendment Protects Right to Own Guns
Wall Street Journal, Editorial
22 Mar 2008
As shoot-outs go, the Supreme Court had a famous one Tuesday during oral arguments over the constitutionality of Washington D.C.'s handgun ban. The smoke won't clear until the High Court issues its decision, but the debate this week augurs well for a conclusion that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual right to bear arms. District of Columbia v. Heller has become the test case for a question that has animated legal scholars, politicians and lower courts for much of our modern history: Is the Second Amendment guarantee a collective right, which is to say it is reserved only for state militias, or is it an individual right? Judge Laurence Silberman's... ( gunpolicy.org )
United States
US Supremes Should Rule that Communities Can Enact their Own Gun Laws
Washington Post, Opinion
22 Mar 2008
Nearly 135 years ago, the United States experienced what may have been the worst one-day slaughter of blacks by whites in its history. On April 13, 1873, in the tiny village of Colfax, La., white paramilitaries attacked a lightly armed force of freedmen assembled in a local courthouse. By the time the Colfax Massacre was over, more than 60 African American men lay shot, burned or stabbed to death. Most were killed after they had surrendered. Though it caused a national sensation in post-Civil War America, this horrible incident has been largely overlooked by historians. It deserves fresh study today not only to illuminate the human cost of Reconstruction's defeat... ( gunpolicy.org )
|
|
