Extend Gun Rights to States

Nearly two years ago the U.S. Supreme Court came to the accurate if belated conclusion that the U.S. Constitution's Second Amendment confers a personal right of citizens to own and carry firearms. Now the court must decide whether that right overrides state laws limiting gun ownership. If they conflict, the federal right should prevail.

The Supreme Court's 2008 ruling protecting gun rights arose in a case involving a complete handgun ban in Washington, D.C., which is a unique jurisdiction governed in many instances by federal law.

The question before the high court this week was whether the Second Amendment applies to the states and local governments as well. The justices heard a case involving a similar handgun ban in Chicago.

If the court follows its own precedents, there is no reason that the Second Amendment shouldn't apply in Chicago as well as Washington, D.C. Since the early 20th century, the high court has issued a series of rulings applying the Bill of Rights to the states.

This process is known as the "incorporation doctrine."

The attorney for Chicago argued that the court should make an exception to the incorporation doctrine in the case of guns.

But it would be illogical to say that the First Amendment, which guarantees free speech rights, applies to the states, but the Second Amendment, which protects personal gun ownership, does not.

This does not mean that states and localities are powerless to regulate firearms. In his 2008 majority opinion, Justice Antonin Scalia suggested that reasonable regulations covering "dangerous and unusual weapons" could be upheld, as could rules covering "conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale" of firearms.

Guns should be subject to reasonable regulations, including requirements that their sale be subject to waiting periods and background checks.

But personal gun ownership in America has a tradition pre-dating our existence as an independent country and the Second Amendment should be recognized throughout the nation.

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