The Supreme Court’s decision gives Americans a lot to think about — from the “privileges or immunities” clause to the Court’s proper role in enforcing the Constitution. But whenever we discuss gun control, we need to remember that a government capable of gun control is capable of tyranny. Both the majority opinion and Thomas’s concurrence in McDonald — following in the steps of works such as Stephen P. Halbrook’s Securing Civil Rights — perform the crucial service of explaining how important that fact was in the wake of the Civil War.

Robert Verbruggen
July 7, 2010
Gun Rights Are Civil Rights
[Via Jeff.

We need to hammer this point whenever we can. The specific enumerated right to keep and bear arms is a civil right. We are civil rights workers and leaders. Those that oppose us are bigots who wish to deny us and people in general an inalienable right.–Joe]

We are winning, slowly but surely, and this is because logic, reason, and morality are on our side.

Robb Allen
July 6, 2010
When I say Read the Whole Thing
[15 years ago I would have said this wasn’t going to be enough and I began my preparations accordingly (which is part of the reason there is Boomershoot). And perhaps it wasn’t.

We had some luck and I think our opponents made some stupid blunders. I would like to think that luck and opponent blunders were not required but when I think about those dark days I can’t help but believe things could have ended up very differently if only a couple key battles had gone the other way.–Joe]

The Second Amendment is itself a reasonable, common-sense gun law–it provides powerful security for a fundamental individual right.

Alan Gura
June 29, 2010
McDonald – A Victory for the Second Amendment
[We should start using this when people start talking about “common-sense gun laws”. Just say, “It has already been enacted. We just need to enforce it.”–Joe]

Of course, spikes in gun violence do not follow gun-rights rulings, either. Yet that has not stopped gun-control advocates from falsely predicting them, again and again. So they’re wrong on the empirical evidence, the normative considerations, and the Constitution. Aside from that, they’ve got an airtight case.

Robert Nozick
July 2, 2010
Facts & Law Aside, Gun Control Advocates Are Right
[The part of the anti-rights advocates which is “airtight” is the part that allows them to be subject to the influences of reality.–Joe]

Despite the Supreme Court’s ruling today it is absolutely important to emphasize that the conservative majority held that strong and effective gun
laws are still constitutional and can be enacted.

Thom Mannard
Executive Director of the Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence
http://www.gunguys.com/?p=4049
June 28, 2010
[Emphasis in the original.

And when you find one of those mythical laws let us know. Okay?–Joe]

Nonetheless, the Supreme Court’s Second Amendment decisions have made a major difference. In particular, they have offset the gun-control community’s longstanding effort to “denormalize” firearms ownership — to portray it as something threatening, deviant, and vaguely perverse, and hence demanding strict regulation, if not outright prohibition. That effort went on for decades, and received much media support. Two decades ago, it seemed to be working.

But with the Supreme Court saying that it’s clear the Framers regarded individual gun ownership as “necessary to our system of ordered liberty,” that effort must be seen as a failure now. Gun ownership by law-abiding citizens is the new normal, and the Second Amendment is now normal constitutional law. It will stay so, as long as enough Americans care to keep it that way.

Glenn Reynolds
June 29, 2010
The New Normal: The Second Amendment After Heller and McDonald
[They are still trying to “denormalize” it. They do it with zero tolerance in the schools for even a sandwich bitten to look like a gun, registration, licensing, publicizing concealed carry license holders along with sex offenders, and here and here for example. See also my gun cartoon of the day topic.

We came very, very close to losing this via “denormalization”. It’s how the holocaust came into being and it’s not that much of a stretch to imagine a similar fate for gun owners had we not been able to turn it around.

We must continue to normalize it. The safe and responsible exercise of a specific enumerated right is not something that should ever be looked down upon. Those that disparage it should be derided, scorned, and humiliated and the Heller and McDonald rulings give another great tool to accomplish that with.–Joe]