How screwed up is our 2nd amendment discourse? Just look at the 1st amendment! [View all]
The 2nd amendment recognizes that people have a right to guns (for purposes of this post I'll skip right past the whole militia tangent).
Well, the 1st amendment recognizes that people have a right to free speech.
Yet congress has regulated speech in many ways and we're fine with that. Can't invite a riot. Can't slander or libel others. Can't conspire to commit crimes. Can't threaten violence.
Most of constitutional law -- the interesting cases, anyway -- are struggles to find the right balance of the often conflicting goals and restrictions in the constitution.
And we get that with free speech. Free speech is good, but so is domestic tranquility and the general welfare. Some restrictions to free speech are acceptable in order to advance other from constitutional goals.
Same goes for the 2nd amendment. Some restrictions on guns are appropriate and acceptable in order to ensure domestic tranquility and promote the general welfare.
And guess what? This is not a controversial position, this is well established case law. The Supreme Court has always held that reasonable regulation of guns is constitutional. Some regulations may go too far, but the Supreme Court has never remotely held that there should be zero gun regulation.
Yet, try having that discussion with a right-wing gun nut (there are far more reasonable gun owners, notably on the left wing, including many here on du, who understand the point I'm making). These absolutists insist that no gun regulation is constitutional based on their interpretation of the 2nd amendment in isolation and all discussion ends there.
It's an impossible fantasy, little else in the constitution works that way, but there's no getting through to these people.
The real challenge for constitutional scholars and justices is exactly how do you define when a gun regulation has gone too far. And that's where the daily tragedies can factor in to the equation.
Free speech can be curtailed in order to ensure an orderly exit from a theater.
Some reasonable regulation should be enacted to reduce the likelihood of these horrible tragedies.
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