...is one way to anticipate how the District of Columbia Circuit Court decision in Parker vs. the District of Columbia will effect 'We The People of the United States of America' regarding our right to keep and bear arms. The full U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC circuit refused to review the earlier case that affirmed said right is an individual's right. The next, and only legal, recourse remaining for the District of Colombia is to take the Parker case to the United States Supreme Court.
If this case goes to the Supreme Court, a ruling that the 2nd Amendment affords individuals the right to keep and bear arms would affirm that which law abiding gun owners and their advocates have been saying throughout our nation's history. If however, the Supreme Court decides that such right is reserved to the 'militias' of a each state, and therefore is a right not of the individual, the outcome could be horrendous for law abiding gun owners. Of course, the outcome could also be horrendous for our nation as a whole. To remove any right, found in our constitution, especially the right to keep and bear arms, from the individual citizen would be tantamount to removing them all since it is by said right that we as individuals retain the power to overthrow tyranny as did the founding fathers of our nation. They revolted for less than this, and it should be noted that 'the shot heard round the world' (the first shot of the Revolutionary War) was fired only when British troops tried to march on a colonial armory to remove the colonists firearms by force. Approximately 800 British soldiers were marching to Concord, MA, when about 70 (yes outnumbered by more than 10 - 1) Minutemen stood their ground at Lexington Green, MA. When this first battle was over, 8 of the colonists lay dead. Among the dead was the commander of the group; and as a twist of fate and coincidence would have it, his name was John Parker. (Reference: http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761575042/Lexington_(Massachusetts).html, 5/12/2007).)
The District of Columbia now has 90 days to appeal the ruling of the court. It is ironic that they have been a member of this law suit if only because DC is our nation's capital, and one would think therefore that it would be the protector of our rights when it is just the opposite as regarding the repressive anti-gun laws they have enacted. It is also ironic that DC is involved in this suit in so much as DC wishes to fight crime, and it claims that the anti-gun laws they have on the books are absolutely necessary to thwart violent crime in said city. The facts is, with those same laws in place, DC has recurrently had one of the highest violent crime rates in our country.
With 90 days left to DC to file an appeal, I am guessing that another 90 days, at most, would be what was needed for the Supreme Court to decide the issue and either put it to rest, or put it to the torch. I dare even imagine it possible that they would decide against the 2nd Amendment being a right of the individual, but should they do so it could eventually lead to an armed revolt like the one that commenced on April 19, 1775 with 'the shot heard round the world'. I hope and pray that it works out differently. This right is a right of 'the people', as are the others so enunciated; and with regard to all the others that specifically say a right is that of "the people" they have each been interpreted to mean that the right is that of each individual person, not of a state or the federal government. So should it remain with the 2nd Amendment, that it too is a right of the individual. Let us hope the Supreme Court, if brought to task on this issue, and should they accept to review it, decides such to be the case, otherwise there may yet be another 'shot heard round rhe world'.
All the best,
Glenn B
