WALL: Right to carry?

The left alwasy insists that wives and husbands will shoot each other if firearms are present in their homes. In the town I live in over 3/4 of the houses have firearms present and there are no shootings.

Robert Levy of the libertarian Cato Institute noted: "Killers who are not deterred by laws against murder are not going to be deterred by laws against guns. Anti-gun regulations don't address the deep-rooted causes of violent crime - such as illegitimacy, unemployment, dysfunctional schools and drug and alcohol abuse. The cures are complex and protracted. But that doesn't mean we have to become passive prey for criminal predators. Americans who want to defend themselves by possessing suitable firearms should be able to do so." It’s high time the anti-gun camp train their sights on the real causes of not just gun violence, but of violent crime. Where the "more guns breeds more violence" school of thought is concerned, there is more to consider than the fact that the mantra itself is simple misinformation. The larger issue has far more to do with the personal rights recognized (not afforded) by the US Constitution and Bill of Rights. What amazes me is that four of the supposed constitutional scholars who comprise the high court dissented on the Heller decision. This underscores just how political, rather than judicial that body is (assuming you agree with most scholars in recognizing that the individual rights interpretation of the Second Amendment is the only appropriate one). God help us all if more justices of the same ilk as the four dissenters are appointed in the future.

Tara, Thank you for writing an honest editorial. With all of the Anti gun people preaching armageddon it is nice to hear a well written logical article.

I recently returned from a five week tour of Israel. I stayed in five major cities and visited numerous villages and sites of historical and Biblical importance. Armed uniformed and non uniformed Israelis were ubiquitious. I saw teachers, men and women in both Orthodox and secular garb, and group leaders on school field trips with an M16 or .30 carbine slung over their sholders, and/or with holstered semi autos. I saw people openly carying in restraunts and other public places with zero reaction from the public. I can only assume that many other Israelis were carying conceiled. It became very obvious to me that ordinary citizens' "keeping and bearing" in Israel is common, and not feared or controversial. What I didn't experience in Israeli cities was fear of walking the streets, day or night. And on the evening newscasts I saw no reports of violent street crime in anyplace that I stayed. Are Jews just genetically less susceptible to crime- causing guns than other people, or ... do guns not cause crime? Do DC murder statistics and African genicidal episodes suggest a racial propensity for violent behavior, or does an unarmed (disarmed) populace invite trouble? Anyone want to disarm America and find out? YOUBETCHA! !

The Constitution guarantees the right to keep AND BEAR arms, but it may be prudent to deal with some intermediate issues before asking the courts to nullify restrictions on the carrying of arms - which might be too big a bite to take all at once, causing the courts to choke. A successful litigation strategy proceeds by small increments. Already some have set out to apply the Second Amendment through the lens of the Fourteenth to handgun prohibitions in Chicago and San Francisco. With the attacks confined to handgun prohibitions - not licensing, registration or carrying arms outside a home - the only controversy will be over the Fourteenth Amendment, as possession of handguns in a home has already been found to be constitutionally protected from federal prohibition. Another, very fruitful avenue of attack presently offers itself, without reliance on the Fourteenth Amendment: Mr. Heller is now to receive his registration certificate and a license to take his handgun home, for which papers he will presumably be required to pay fees. The First Amendment prohibits any license fees or taxes on newspapers, other than generally applicable business license fees and taxes. So also the Second Amendment should protect firearms and ammunition from special taxes or fees. It should be an easy case to win. "The power to tax is the power to destroy." The government is not allowed to impose a special tax or fee on the exercise of a constitutional right. Licensing of possession or carrying, and registration of arms, would be politically less sustainable when funded only through general taxation. I hope that someone - preferably Mr. Heller - soon brings a case in which the only issue is constitutional prohibition of special taxes and fees. Licensing, registration and carrying outside a home should not be at issue in that case - only the fees charged. It would be interesting to see how the four justices dissenting in the Heller case would rule on the issue of fees alone, considering the clear constitutional prohibition of special license fees for newspapers. Licensing, registration and prohibition of carrying outside a home can be eliminated in later cases, but eliminating the fees is an important - and easy - step along the way.