Brady Center: Supreme Court Can Reverse Bad Gun-Rights Decision

On Tuesday, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence said that the United States Supreme Court now has the chance to reverse a "clearly erroneous decision."

"By agreeing to hear the appeal by the District of Columbia in the Parker/Heller case, the U.S. Supreme Court has the chance to...make it clear that the Constitution does not prevent communities from having the gun laws they believe are needed to protect public safety...[The Court's decision may] be most important decision on guns in nearly 70 years and maybe the most important ever regarding the Second Amendment," said Paul Helmke, President of the Brady Center.

A previous decision by the Washington, D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals with regards to the Parker case was accused by Helmke of substituting "its policy preferences for those of the District's elected representatives."

The Center's lawyers have appeared in dozens of cases as "friends of the court" and claim to be officially recognized as experts on the Constitutional issues relating to gun laws. Their case-specific interpretations of the meaning of the Second Amendment have been cited by federal courts upholding gun laws against Constitution-invoking attacks.

The Center claims that the "right to bear arms" that was protected by the Second Amendment had to do with nothing except the right of the states to maintain local militias-and, as those militias were almost always comprised of white males aged 18 to 45, the Second Amendment actually has nothing to say about severe restrictions on gun ownership, which the Center usually upholds as being Constitutional.

What's more, claims the Brady Center, the Second Amendment is merely an anachronism now, as the militia of 1776 is gone in our day and age.

However, gun rights advocates assert that if that was all the Second Amendment was about, it would not have been presented as a protected individual right. In addition, they point out that it is historical fact that Thomas Jefferson, who was one of the main authors of the Constitution, was a great gun ownership advocate for all American citizens, as he indicates in some of his other writings, and that he felt strongly that a well-armed citizenry was a violent crime deterrence and a deterrence against the potential decay into martial law tactics by a government.

They also cite modern studies, some conducted by the federal government, that prove that law-abiding citizens who are armed are a very powerful deterrent against would-be violent criminals. They see these men and women as the "new militia".

The Parker-Heller case revolves around an attempted Washington, D.C. ban on all handguns except those used by police officers.

Original Newswire Source:
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