Gun Rights

The Massachusetts Gun Owners’ Action League will mark the ten-year anniversary of the signing of the state’s 1998 Gun Control Act on July 23, 2008. It has marked the upcoming anniversary by outlining what it calls the “Decade of Disaster” that resulted from the passage the law, officially known as Chapter 180 of the Acts of 1998.

When black folks were outmanned and outgunned during the slavery, Reconstruction and Jim Crow eras, various Supreme Court decisions left blacks defenseless against a tide of white terrorism. But now that black communities are awash in a wave of black on black crime, the Supreme Court accepts and rules on a case concerning the right to bear arms.

Smith & Wesson shares rallied in heavy trading, rising 44 cents, or 8.6 percent, to $5.55. Analysts said the ruling will have little effect on Smith & Wesson's sales, however, because the Washington, D.C., restrictions were far tighter than most others in the country, and D.C. is a small market.

A special edition Mini-14 rifle will be produced in 2008 to raise money for the NRA Institute for Legislative Action.

John R. Lott, Jr. wrote last week, 'The Supreme Court's decision Thursday affirming that people have a right to own guns evoked all sorts of reactions....' He then went on to write about one of these reactions:

Dan Schnur, writing in the New York Times online 'Campaign Stops' column, took a broad view of what Heller means for the upcoming presidential election: Partisans on both sides will argue about whether Mr. Obama's equivocation represents a clarification or a reversal of his previous statements on the subject. But the truth is that it doesn't matter. …

Marie Cocco, a writer for the Washington Post Writer's Group, tried to undercut the value of Heller by castigating gun-rights advocates for pushing their rights before the court, and in local jurisdictions: The gun lobby already has filed suit against municipalities that have laws similar to the one struck down in the District of Columbia. Wayne LaPierre, the National Rifle Association's executive vice president, told me that licensing and permitting systems, such as the one long…

In the end, the court settled a matter that had been ruled by sensibilities. When fashionable people can afford to hire security guards or live in gated communities, they tend to think of self-defense as a neurotic obsession of the gauche and overwrought. They don't think they need handguns, therefore no one needs handguns. They are undeterred by research that shows that their gun bans don't reduce crime, because it only matters that they mean well.

The AP has reported that in Atlanta, gun-rights advocates are saying a new Georgia state law allows visitors to carry firearms at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. City officials in charge of the airport declared it a 'gun free zone' when the new law took effect Tuesday. Gun rights supporters, including a state legislator who helped pass the law, quickly filed a lawsuit in federal court challenging the designation. …

The Washington Post has reported that gun shops in suburban Maryland and Virginia felt an immediate impact from the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling Thursday that the District's handgun ban is unconstitutional. City leaders said it would take about three weeks to iron out which kinds of guns will be legal and how the registration process will work.

The National Rifle Association lost no time challenging the Illinois' city of Evanston's handgun ban in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's June 26 decision upholding individual rights of gun owners.

…Here's a sampling of reactions to the D.C. V. Heller decision handed down Thursday.