By Bob Barr
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
November 28, 2007
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
— Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States
In announcing last week that the U.S. Supreme Court would decide whether a lower-court decision last spring invalidating the District of Columbia's 31-year-old handgun ban should stand, the high court teed up a modern-day "shot heard 'round the world" that may very well define whether freedom retains any life breath in this country.
Since its adoption as part of the Bill of Rights in 1791, the Second Amendment has generated controversy far beyond its short, 27-word length. Yet, surprisingly, in all those 216 years, the Supreme Court has never ruled definitely on the amendment's reach. Does it, as the District of Columbia and a number of federal courts have decided, simply codify a collective right of an organized "militia" to arm itself? Or, as other courts and judges have concluded — including Senior Circuit Judge Laurence Silberman of the federal Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, who wrote the decision in the case the Supreme Court will hear in its current term — does the Second Amendment guarantee the right of an individual to possess firearms for self-defense? [More...]
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