Oklahoman Editorial: Stance on Gun Rights is Welcomed
2002-05-12

WE commend Attorney General John Ashcroft and the Justice Department for officially altering the government’s view of the Second Amendment, recognizing an individual’s right to possess a firearm.
The largely symbolic legal brief, filed last week with the U.S. Supreme Court in connection with two cases it is considering for review, is attracting plenty of criticism from gun- control advocates and as such shows no shortage of courage.

At the same time it reflects a principled view, grounded in history, that individual gun rights are just as constitutionally protected as other individual freedoms set out in the Bill of Rights.

We say the action is symbolic because the mere act of the government stating its position on the Second Amendment is neither evidence nor case law.

It may become important as future gun-rights cases rise to the high court, in the arguments that could lead to interpretation of laws or rulings that could block attempts to restrict gun rights.

For decades the government’s default interpretation of 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”, has been that gun rights extended only to organized state military organizations, such as the National Guard.

Yet a number of scholars think the Founding Fathers understood that states preferred a population of firearms-trained citizens to a standing federal army and therefore wanted to guarantee individual gun rights.

“(The Justice Department’s) view is tremendously orthodox,” UCLA law professor Eugene Volokh told the Washington Post. “It was the only view around until the early 1900s, and only fell out of favor in the 1930s.”

As we say, it remains to be seen how the Bush administration’s positional shift will come into play. Still, we welcome the government’s “enlightened” view.

Firearms researcher John Lott of the American Enterprise Institute writes for USA Today that guns are used defensively 2 million times a year, and are especially beneficial for potential victims such as women and the elderly.

Lott also notes that strict gun laws enacted in Europe in the mid-1990s have not stopped serious shooting incidents, such as the recent tragedy at a school in Germany, and that most violent crime categories have worsened the past four years.

In the hands of law-abiding, trained citizens, firearms are an important defensive measure for individual safety and freedom. We, and now the federal government, think that’s exactly what the writers of the Second Amendment had in mind.