Right Wing Judicial Activism: Heinous Gun Decision In D.C. Circuit Court

Talk about judicial activism! The right wingers on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals have tossed out the District's 30 year old ban on handguns, asserting that the Second Amendment provides an inviolable individual right to own a handgun.

This case is certainly headed for a major confrontation in the Supreme Court.

Unfortunately, the District says it will first seek en banc review by the entire D.C. Circuit, which will only delay the inevitable Supreme Court battle by several months to a year. We say, skip that review, which is not mandated before a petition to the Supreme Court.

Instead, get this case going so that it is argued in the high court in 2008 during the midst of a wide open presidential campaign. We want the voters to see the arrogance of the National Rifle Association and its allies on full display.

Indeed, the NRA gestapo has gone so nutso that it's not above figuratively shooting its own members if they don't toe the line. Recently, a lifelong NRA member and popular host of a outdoor television show on hunting, Jim Zumbo, had the temerity to suggest, in his blog, that military assault weapons had no place in hunting, especially of small game such a prairie dogs.

Oh my, the hue and cry that followed! For that one little reasonable observation, Zumbo is now persona non gratis in the paranoid world of the NRA. My goodness, how DARE he deprecate the rights of assault weapon wielding hunters to machine gun down a few prairie dogs for sport! (For more, see here.)

We assume that hyper-conservative jurist Larry Silberman, who authored the majority opinion striking down the D.C. gun law, has no qualms with the NRA's party line. (We're looking for his car so we can photograph the "guns don't kill people" bumber sticker.) Silberman couldn't resist adding a footnote--completely irrelevant to the legal issue presented--observing that "the black market in handguns in the District is so strong that they are readily available (probably at little premium) to criminals" despite D.C.'s law."

Two observations Judge Larry: 1. Those illegal handguns mostly come in from Virginia, where NRA's headquarters are located, and Maryland, both of which have numerous gun dealers who have repeatedly violated federal laws regulating gun sales, laws that the NRA has done everything in its power to dilute.

2. Your logic leads to the legalization of all illicit drugs, since, to paraphrase you, "the black market for illegal drugs in every state in the nation is so strong that drugs are readlily available (probably at little premium) to criminals." Indeed, if we apply a test of effectiveness to our laws, most will fail.

While the political pendulum is gradually swinging back to the middle, this heinous gun decision shows the lasting price we'll be paying for the Bush years.