See this CBS News article, and this gem of a quote:
“We’ve lost the battle on what the Second Amendment means,” campaign president Paul Helmke told ABC News. “Seventy-five percent of the public thinks it’s an individual right. Why are we arguing a theory anymore? We are concerned about what we can do practically.”
Yep. Of course, this is to be expected if Heller wins. They go on to say that a victory in Heller won’t really mean much, and could, in fact, mean that the NRA no longer can stoke the fears of gun owners that gun control will lead to confiscation. That’s not a poor analysis, but if the second amendment actually means something, I don’t see how that’s going to end with the Brady agenda remaining in tact.
While I have no doubt the federal judiciary will not interpret the second amendment as broadly as we would like, I don’t think the Brady Campaign will be entirely happy with the outcome either. Plus, if The Courts more or less settle the issue politically, gun control groups stand to lose a lot more than the NRA. The NRA will continue to exist even absent the political debate. Not that I actually believe the debate will ever be settled, but the gun control crowd will have to regroup, lower their goalposts, and see what ways the federal courts will allow them to agitate us.
I disagree. The banners will stop at nothing. Look at Nutter, Nagin, Clinton and Doyle. They will stop at nothing. Even if the got a total ban, they would go after sticks.
In Wisconsin, the Supreme Court ordered the legislature to pass CCW to to get in line with our Constitution and Doyle still ignores them.
We will have t fight forever.
Well, ya gotta love it when your opponent says “We’ve lost” before the decision is even in! But ‘jones’, above, is right;
“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance”–Thomas Jefferson
Jones:
It’s not quite accurate to say that CCW was struck down by WISC. The language in State V. Hamdan upholds the CCW prohihtion on the grounds that open carry is legal. If open carry is prohibited (or can be show to effectively be prohibited through illegal LEO harassment), THEN they said the CCW prohibtion must yield to the Constitution.
Anyways – it never sits well with me when people say that the NRA has a vested interest in selling us out so that they may continue to “fight for us.” and ask for money. I mean, they are not just a political animal. There’s LEO and youth group training, safety classes, training certifications, sanctioning of sport shooting events, conservation programs, etc., etc. I don’t think the NRA would have need to go away even if every single gun law in America was erased. After all, it’s only been a lobbyist group for what, 30 years? I don’t remember when NRA-ILA was started, either…
I remember when “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” had to go to the Supreme court to get unbanned because it contained the “F” word. Ten years later local cops were still jailing Lenny Bruce for using words on stage that are now heard on network TV. It will take a generation of incremental change, but it’s inevitable once the first ruling goes our way. We will probably end up with a “community standards” setup like that for porn. There will be some jurisdictions, probably the 5th circuit and a few others, where “No Law” means just that. There will be other places, like the 2nd District, where cap pistols will be illegal.
Prepare to move to a decent state.
Mike,
I was unclear on one count and possibly wrong on a second.
My understanding is that the Supreme Court “suggested” to the legislature that a CCW was needed. That was thwarted by Doyle.
I am unclear on the relation of CC and OC in WI other than OC is “legal.”
Agree on NRA, I am pretty sure most members/leaders would be happy to train and teach in an “uninfringed” America.
Of course, the random thought that occurs to me is whether or not JadeMoron will have the intellectual honesty and integrity to fold now that his glorious idols… er… role models have already beaten him to it.
To be a little more topical, however, I honestly thought these quotes were a hoax until my newsreader started showing them in multiple locations, and I actually read the news story… I have to admit, if the Brady Bunch is looking for a leg to stand on in the future, they are going to have a difficult time of it…
hello?! not an individual right? what the hell do they think the bill of rights is all about!?
mdoncall.blogspot.com
This fight will NEVER end. Yes indeed we do hope for a favorable ruling on Heller but the fight continues. Whatever weak spots the court leaves in the gun grabbers will try to use. New Justices will be appointed, some Constitutionalist some Statist. The Fascist, and I do mean Fascist, will use the schools to instill fear of guns and gun owners. News, TV shows and movies will still protray gun owners as knuckle dragging kooks. So WE, those who consider themselves Citizen not subject, need to challenge them on every front.
And way too many gun owners do not belong to any of the gun rights groups. Shame on them. There are a lot of groups if the NRA is not your cup of tea. This country was worth fighting for at Lexington/Concord and it is worth fighting for now.
I don’t think groups like the NRA or GOA will ever really go away. First the NRA is also involved a lot in education on proper firearms usage. Secondly, Brady and gang will not stop just because they can’t ban all firearms. They will try and put many restrictions on it and try to make it unreasonably hard for law abiding citizens to get a gun as well as putting unreasonable record keeping requirements on gun stores to try and get as few of them as they possibly can. They try and get them through as “reasonable” restrictions like not being able to yell “Fire” in a crowded theatre. That’s where groups like the NRA and the GOA will have to come in. Remember, this ruling will have nothing to do over regulation of firearms, just if it’s possible for an outright ban of all firearms.
It’s will be an important ruling because the intent of the 2nd amendment has been debated for a long time (primarily because if it is a right, you can’t ban guns) but it is certainly not the end of the fight and I’ll probably still have to have a FID card in NJ but maybe this will get us a little closer to the day when we can abolish some of these horrible NJ laws.
I hope Helmke is right for once, but I have a rule: I never do the victory dance until I see it on the scoreboard.
And after we win, if we do win, there will be much to do. In Mordor-on-the-Potomac, there’s Lautenberg and Hughes and GCA ’68 and NFA ’34 to start work on. In the states, there’s shall-issue for the states that don’t already have it, and Alaska-Vermont style for states that are now shall-issue.
Beyond that, liberty is always an island under siege–always and everywhere.
At first I was happy that this situation of ” if I don’t like what the bill of rights says I will simply say it doesn’t mean what it says” [ remember our former president “what the definition of is – is”] would finally be decided. But after reading several articles of what the consequences will probably be even with a individual right decision by the court, I’m now positive we will have these “be a victim” organizations to contend with through out my lifetime.