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U.S. Supreme Court confirms Second Amendment’s original intent.

221 years since the ratification of the U.S. Constitution, the U.S. Supreme Court decided for the first time what people of moderation and common sense have always understood. What the Supreme Court confirmed was that the Second Amendment pertained to an individual’s personal right to own guns. The Court struck down a set of gun regulations in the District of Columbia that effectively amounted to a ban on individual ownership of guns. For years, gun control advocates have argued that the Second Amendment is only about a state’s ability to form a militia and not about an individual’s rights. This flies in the face of the fact that seven of the first eight amendments to the Constitution clearly deal with an individual’s rights and not the states.

Just as the Court recognizes the constitutionality of limits to free speech, it also recognizes the limits to the individuals right to bear arms. Justice Scalia, in his majority opinion, was very clear in saying what the court’s ruling did not change.

Nothing in our opinion should be taken to cast doubt on longstanding prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings, or laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms.

Virginia has little to fear from the Court’s ruling. None of the commonwealth’s current laws regulating the possession or sale of firearms rises to the level of the DC ban. There are other states and municipalities, such as New York City and San Francisco whose anti-gun regulations are almost as onerous as those of DC. Unfortunately there are extremists on both sides of the gun debate that will ensure the political and cultural war continues. But for now common sense and the original intent of our founding fathers has prevailed. Congratulations to Justice Scalia and the other Supreme Court judges for affirming our right to bear arms.

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