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Each side in the gun control debate agrees that the Supreme Court’s latest ruling hardly is the end of the matter.
While the 5-to-4 decision upheld the Second Amendment’s guarantee of a right to bear arms, it did not specifically rule on the original law that prompted the case.
Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. said the right to self-defense was constitutionally protected at all levels of government, but made clear that the ruling should not be taken as a green light to get rid of laws that ban possession of guns by felons or the mentally ill, carrying guns in schools and government buildings, or regulations on gun sales.
Butch Herold of Butch’s Sports World in Palmyra just returned from a small business conference in Washington, D.C., where the topics included everything from gun laws to medical costs.
Herold doesn’t think the Supreme Court ruling will have much of an impact.
“The Second Amendment is what it is,” he said. “All the laws that pertain to guns only effect the innocent people.”
Ladd Everitt, director of communications for the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, said the ruling was “not a win,” but “there’s not much we can point to and go crazy over.”
“We were kind of pleasantly surprised at how restrained it was,” Everitt said.
The ruling came out of laws in Chicago and a suburb, Oak Park, Ill. Four homeowners challenged Chicago’s total ban on handguns, saying they needed weapons for protection.
The decision “gives those people their Second Amendment right,” said Nick Yocco of Don’s Gun Shop in Troy. “That’s an improvement over what they had.”
However, the majority opinion addressed the Second Amendment’s reach from beyond the federal level to state and local jurisdictions. The laws themselves were sent back to lower courts for a decision on whether they meet constitutional muster.
Everitt emphasized that the ruling “doesn’t imperil every law” that restricts or bans gun ownership.
Joining Alito in the majority were Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Antonin Scalia, Anthony M. Kennedy and Clarence Thomas.
Dissenters were Justices John Paul Stevens, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen G. Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor. They argued the scope of the Second Amendment had only limited application to the Chicago law.
Stevens wrote that “firearms have a fundamentally ambivalent relationship to liberty.”
The Bill of Rights originally covered only the powers of the federal government, but the rights were extended to the states after the Civil War under the due process clause of the 14th Amendment.
Each side in the gun control debate agrees that the Supreme Court’s latest ruling hardly is the end of the matter.
While the 5-to-4 decision upheld the Second Amendment’s guarantee of a right to bear arms, it did not specifically rule on the original law that prompted the case.
Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. said the right to self-defense was constitutionally protected at all levels of government, but made clear that the ruling should not be taken as a green light to get rid of laws that ban possession of guns by felons or the mentally ill, carrying guns in schools and government buildings, or regulations on gun sales.
Butch Herold of Butch’s Sports World in Palmyra just returned from a small business conference in Washington, D.C., where the topics included everything from gun laws to medical costs.
Herold doesn’t think the Supreme Court ruling will have much of an impact.
“The Second Amendment is what it is,” he said. “All the laws that pertain to guns only effect the innocent people.”
Ladd Everitt, director of communications for the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, said the ruling was “not a win,” but “there’s not much we can point to and go crazy over.”
“We were kind of pleasantly surprised at how restrained it was,” Everitt said.
The ruling came out of laws in Chicago and a suburb, Oak Park, Ill. Four homeowners challenged Chicago’s total ban on handguns, saying they needed weapons for protection.
The decision “gives those people their Second Amendment right,” said Nick Yocco of Don’s Gun Shop in Troy. “That’s an improvement over what they had.”
However, the majority opinion addressed the Second Amendment’s reach from beyond the federal level to state and local jurisdictions. The laws themselves were sent back to lower courts for a decision on whether they meet constitutional muster.
Everitt emphasized that the ruling “doesn’t imperil every law” that restricts or bans gun ownership.
Joining Alito in the majority were Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Antonin Scalia, Anthony M. Kennedy and Clarence Thomas.
Dissenters were Justices John Paul Stevens, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen G. Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor. They argued the scope of the Second Amendment had only limited application to the Chicago law.
Stevens wrote that “firearms have a fundamentally ambivalent relationship to liberty.”
The Bill of Rights originally covered only the powers of the federal government, but the rights were extended to the states after the Civil War under the due process clause of the 14th Amendment.
