The time has come yet again to debate gun rights.
According to the New York Times, two judges from the federal appeals court have called Justice Antonin Scalia's ruling in the recent District of Columbia V. Heller case was "Illegitimate, activist, poorly reasoned and fueled by politics rather than principle."
The Supreme Court ruled that the District of Columbia's ban on owning a handgun was unconstitutional and that the plaintiff, Dick Heller, was more than welcome to bring his service weapon home from his job as a security guard.
The question that has been raised by the federal appeals judges is whether the Supreme Court has given conservatives their own Roe v. Wade overreach, wherein an issue that some say should be left up to states' rights has been put under federal control.
Should gun control be an issue left up to state government, or should federal law give all states an overarching law for all to follow?
Furthermore, has Justice Scalia cemented it in people's minds that laws should be debated in the Supreme Court first, and on the ballots second, if at all?
Who cares?
Rather, maybe it's a little early to debate the whole state/federal thing.
Approximately 173,000 people died in America from gun-related incidents between 2000 and 2005. For comparison, the United Kingdom averages about .1 gun-related fatalities per 100,000 people, or approximately 61 people in the same time period. (For cultural reference, this was a hard statistic to find.)
Some of those deaths could be stricken from the record because of the possibility of death in the pursuit of law and order, but Amadou Diallo would take issue with that, so the number stands.
This country has too many guns already to make it easier for people to get hold of more. Laws and controls on the presence and regulation of firearms are enforced haphazardly more often than anyone would like to admit.
This country was founded partially on firearms. Innovations in gun creation and manufacturing fueled this economy in its early years. But so far Americans have proven mostly unable to handle the responsibility that comes with owning something built to kill.
In a country where the families of deceased police essentially inherit their loved one's service weapon, the issue is not who gets to make the laws, but who will enforce the laws that already exist.
But for the sake of argument: Gun control should be a federal issue. Why? Because guns are small, and easy to hide, and cars that cross state lines are rarely searched for any reason in the first place. Put simply, gun control can't be a state issue because the guns themselves aren't a state issue.
State laws should only be applied to things that stay in that state.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
