Sometimes I look at the right/left divide in the United States and wonder why we can’t find any common ground. There’s no way, if you were to make a list of 100 issues, that liberals would be categorically on one side and conservatives on the other.
That’s true, but as Antonin Scalia demonstrates in his statement regarding the handgun ban, even when I agree with these guys they manage to make it douchey enough that I want to smack them in the head. Yes, banning handguns is a bad idea. This?
“Undoubtedly some think that the Second Amendment is outmoded in a society where our standing army is the pride of our nation, where well-trained police forces provide personal security and where gun violence is a serious problem,” Scalia wrote. “That is perhaps debatable, but what is not debatable is that it is not the role of this court to pronounce the Second Amendment extinct.”
To semi-quote Jon Stewart, why you gotta end it kinda dickish? No one thinks the 2nd amendment is outmoded, at least no one away from the 0.5% fringe on the extreme extreme left. People have the right to keep and bear arms, it’s in the damn thing, whether we think it’s outmoded or not hardly matters anyway.
What drives me crazy is this argument that any, ANY, regulation or lawmaking concerning what weapons people are allowed to have is an infringement on our 2nd Amendment rights. I’m not even paying attention to the first part of it concerning militias, because my reading of it says that is the reason for the right, not the path through which we get it.
The “gimme an assault rifle and ten bazookas” crowd takes the interpretation that limiting the weaponry people can have in any way is unconstitutional. The problem is that if you interpret it that way, then all kinds of things would be unconstitutional. Censorship, public indecency laws, requiring people to get permission before protesting, all these things would violate the 1st amendment.
Don’t even get me started on the 4th. The same people who argue against a “liberal interpretation” of the 2nd amendment seem to love a liberal interpretation of the 4th, arguing that wiretapping isn’t really a search or seizure, amongst other things.
But back to the main point: I agree that a handgun ban is dumb, but dammit Scalia, why ya gotta be a dick about it?
3 responses so far ↓
Rechan // June 26, 2008 at 3:10 pm
Even though this is merely a response to a single sentence in your post, rather than the entire point:
Well, there are definitely some liberals getting their panties in a bunch.
John Arvosa over on AmericaBlog, for instance: http://www.americablog.com/2008/06/supreme-court-overturns-dc-handgun-ban.html
Hanlon // June 26, 2008 at 3:50 pm
Well, he’s right about the hypocrisy, but Aravosis is a good example of a “hypersensitive liberal” at times. Remember he led the crusade against Snickers and their Super Bowl ads.
Rechan // June 26, 2008 at 4:37 pm
Or anti-smoking. ETc etc etc. He’s got a little bit of the hysterics in him.