It is naive to think that the Supreme Court cannot and historically does not reverse it's prior decisions. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court has morphed into something it was never intended to be. It has usurped unchecked powers over the rights of US citizens and lawmakers that the court was never intended to have. One of the cornerstones of our "Bill of Rights" came within a single vote of demise today. Don't think that gunowners have missed the bullet. People on the opposite side of the agenda tend to keep pulling the trigger. The right to legal abortion on demand being a perfect example here.
Again, you don't have to be a lawyer to read Robert Bork's two excellent books: The Tempting of America - on Constitutional Law, and: Slouching Towards Gomorra - on the liberal egalitarian agenda of the left and what it means long-term for American society. The latter was so well written and is so profound an insight, that I bought 3 copies, had Robert Bork himself sign each, and gave one to each of my three kids to read and think about. No wonder the liberals went apoplectic when Ron Regan (God rest his soul!) nominated Robert Bork.
Young Master Adam, my youngest, has just graduated from a here unnamed, but highly regarded college in the NE. He is a government major. In one of his senior classes, this very case (then upcoming case) was put on a mock Supreme Court Trial with members of his class of 2008 serving as the attorneys arguing for and against, the 9 judges hearing the arguments, and a "jury" of sorts that also voted and commented on the case. Being probably only one of a handful of conservatives and the only South Carolinian, Adam took the pro-2nd amendment stance as one of the "attorneys" arguing the case. He lost. His classmate judges ruled unanimously (and voted overwhelmingly) that in the modern era, the government should have the right to restrict hand gun ownership. Teach your children well . . .
I was very proud of him, though. His arguments were right on the money Constitutionally, in the strict sense. And he also came up with a pretty interesting secondary argument regarding "Eminent Domain and Due Process" in the 14th amendment: If you know legally own firearms as "property" and the government lawfully "condemns and seizes" that property, then the government is liable to pay the property owner a fair market value for same, just as if they now buy your land to build a new highway. A sound constitutional argument can be made that should the our government one day succeed (as I fear they will) in outlawing and seizing our property - weapons acquired and heretofore legally owned, then government would have to pay gun owners for them.
How much comfort does that give you? Probably about as much comfort as you can take from today's decision, presuming one supports the right of an individual to legally possess a firearm.
Posted this earlier, but it is worth re-posting:
How Long Do We Have?
About the time our original thirteen states adopted their new constitution in 1787, Alexander Tyler, a Scottish ?history professor at the University of Edinburgh, had this to say about the fall of the Athenian Republic some 2,000 years earlier:? 'A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government.' ?'A democracy will continue ?to exist up until the time that voters discover they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury.' ?'From that moment on, ?the majority always vote for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.' 'The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years.' 'During ?those 200 years, those nations always progressed through the following ?sequence:??
1. ?From bondage to spiritual faith
2. ?From ?spiritual faith to great courage
3. ?From courage to ?liberty
4. ?From liberty to abundance
5. ?From abundance to ?complacency
6. ?From complacency to apathy
7. ?From apathy to ?dependence
8. ?From dependence back into bondage?
Some feel that the United States is now somewhere between the 'complacency and apathy' phase of professor Tyler's definition of democracy, with about forty percent of the nation's population already having reached the 'governmental dependency' phase.
Thomas Jefferson was probably right about the need for periodic revolutions in a democracy.
