What Now?

The DC Circuit Court has ruled on Parker v. District of Columbia. I think a short quote is in order here:

The court held that the Second Amendment (“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”) does not bestow any rights on individuals except, perhaps, when an individual serves in an organized militia such as today’s National Guard. We reverse.

I also note with some pleasure the decision references both Judge Kozinski’s dissent in Silviera v. Lockyer and Eugene Volokh’s writing on the 2nd Amendment.

I realize the District may yet appeal the case (your tax dollars at work!) and SCOTUS may pull something completely different out of the collective bunghole of the court system (see, for instance, Gonzales v. Raich or McConnell v. FEC). In the meantime, the Second Amendment secures an individual right. So, all you collective rights gun banning people over at the Brady Center and the Joyce Foundation: what now, bitches?

If you're interested, more commentary by people with actual law degrees can be found over at the Conspiracy.

Side note: The dissent appears to rely (from my cursory reading) on the curious notion that the District is not a State, so the Second Amendment does not apply. Uhh, what? That has to be one of the more interesting interpretations I've seen lately.