A Win for the Second Amendment

The Supreme Court today, in a bare 5 member majority, held that the Second Amendment applies equally to the States as it does to the Federal government.

The case is McDonald v. Chicago, and it effectively extends the reasoning from the DC v. Heller case to all governmental subdivisions in the United States.

Samuel Alito wrote the opinion for the court: "Self-defense is a basic right ... and in Heller, we held that individual self-defense is "the central component" of the Second Amendment right. It is clear that the Framers and ratifiers of the Fourteenth Amendment counted the right to keep and bear arms among those fundamental rights necessary to our system of ordered liberty ... a provision of the Bill of Rights that protects a right that is fundamental from an American perspective applies equally to the Federal Government and the States."

So, all rights stated in the Bill of Rights apply equally to the States and the Federal governments (not just the liberal-approved rights), and the opinion is firmly rooted in the AMERICAN experience, not some wiggly international standard.

Don't tread on me! Just in time for Independence Day, too!