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Biggest Gun Rights Case In History!

"A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed."

Well, it's done. If you've been listening to my comments about the historic District of Columbia v. Heller case before the Supreme Court, you know that I have been saying this is the most important gun rights case in the history of the United States. I notice that other media folks have picked up on that recently. I'm glad they are paying attention!

The oral arguments were finished at the Supreme Court this morning. As is our practice, the media is trying to read the tea leaves by reading into the questions asked by the justices how they may be leaning. Forget that. Sure, you can figure out how some of them will vote (heck, we already know that about most of them), but they sometimes will ask "devil's advocate" questions, too.

Justice Kennedy's questions seemed to indicate he was giving weight to what is called the "operative clause," which is the "the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed" part of the amendment. Not to read too much into it, that sounds good!

The question being examined in this case is whether the Second Amendment guarantees that U.S. citizens have an individual right to keep and bear arms, or is it some sort of "collective" right which only the states have. (Not that states have any rights -- they have powers.)

Listen to the arguments -- courtesy of Gun Talk radio! 

Here's the key!! You can listen for yourself. We uploaded the audio recording of the Heller case to the Gun Talk podcast site this afternoon. Just go to http://www.guntalk.libsyn.com.

What's it all mean? We'll have to wait until late June for the decision, but as Sandy Froman, past president of the NRA, said on "Tom Gresham's Gun Talk" just two days ago, a decision by the court that the Second does cover an individual right will be only the beginning. Calling this case the "Roe v. Wade" of gun rights, Sandy said a favorable decision by the court will kick off 20 years of subsequent litigation -- just as Roe v. Wade did.

Click Here to view the transcript of the oral arguments, so you can read the text as well as listen to the arguments. It wouldn't be a bad idea to have the text in hand while listening, so you can identify who is talking. Any of the justices can fire questions at the attorneys, so it can be hard to follow when you can't see the action.

Be sure to tune it to Gun Talk radio this Sunday (Easter Sunday), when we'll be examining this case in detail.

Remember, take someone shooting!

Tom Gresham