Advocates praise Supreme Court decision on gun rights w/ District of Columbia v. Heller opinions

By Roger McKinney

rmckinney@joplinglobe.com

Gun-rights advocates on Thursday hailed a U.S. Supreme Court ruling affirming the right of individuals to own guns.

The 5-4 ruling was the first time the high court had interpreted the Second Amendment since it was ratified in 1791. The court struck down the District of Columbia’s total ban on handguns.

Justice Antonin Scalia wrote the majority opinion, joined by Chief Justice John Roberts, and Justices Samuel Alito, Anthony Kennedy and Clarence Thomas. Justices John Paul Stevens, Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and David Souter dissented.

Scalia wrote in his majority opinion that the District of Columbia was left with a variety of tools, including some handgun regulation, for combating gun violence.

Among those who were pleased with the ruling was Brandon Spaugy, owner of Brandon’s Gun Trading Co. in Joplin.

“The thing is, it’s constitutional,” Spaugy said. “What actually makes me unhappy is that they would bring it up for re-evaluation.”

He said he thinks gun-control advocates were hoping that the Supreme Court would find a way to erode rights of gun ownership.

State officials in Missouri were quick to praise the ruling. Attorney General Jay Nixon noted in a news release that he and 30 other attorneys general filed a brief with the Supreme Court urging it to adopt the position that the Second Amendment guarantees the right of individuals to own guns.

“Today the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed what we in Missouri have long held as a mainstream value: that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual right to keep and bear arms,” Nixon said in the statement. He said he supports measures to ensure that criminals don’t get guns, but that it is important to protect gun rights secured by the Founding Fathers.

Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt also praised the ruling.

“Today’s decision is a blow to those groups and liberal politicians who oppose gun rights and who seek to sabotage the Second Amendment rights of Missourians and all Americans,” Blunt said in a statement.

Joplin police Chief Lane Roberts said he is taking a matter-of-fact position on the ruling.

“When you’re talking about a constitutional issue, whatever the Supreme Court decides, that’s the law of the land and that’s what I support,” Roberts said.