On Guns and on Votes

For a change, I will refrain from expressing my personal opinion on the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on the District of Columbia’s ban on hand guns, and I will especially refrain from “characterizing“–glorifying or demonizing– the Supreme Court justices for the way they voted.

On the latter–and as an aside–it has been fascinating to observe the diverging reactions by some to the flurry of decisions rendered by the Court in recent days–some of them on very emotional issues, such as on the death penalty for child rapists, on habeas corpus for enemy combatants, and on gun control. I am referring to the cable and radio talk show hosts and other pundits who one day applaud the Court’s decision as the next best thing since sliced bread, and sanctify the judges, and the next day deplore the decision and vilify the judges as tyrants or “vermin-wearing-black-robes” –sometimes referring to the very same swing judge or judges.

But back to the D.C “gun control” decision. As we know, on Thursday the U.S. Supreme Court decided that the Second Amendment protects an individual’s right to own a gun for personal use and overturned the District‘s 32-year old ban on handguns, the strictest gun control law in our country ( And, again, the Court was either glorified or vilified). What struck me about this effort seeking to give D.C. residents the right to keep and bear arms is how little, if any, has been said or written about an even more important right: the right to vote.

Now, I am well aware that the landmark Supreme Court decision, one that ostensibly applies the Second Amendment to residents of the District of Columbia, will have a tremendous effect on gun control laws far beyond the District. It would be nice, however, if the same people, organizations (such as the NRA) and politicians (such as Dick Cheney) who have worked so hard to give District residents the right to keep and bear arms, would work just as zealously to give these same Americans a far more fundamental right: the right to elect a voting representative in Congress..

Setting aside the national ramifications of the gun control issue and ruling, it seems to me that some are of the opinion that D.C residents are sufficiently responsible to own and use firearms, but not responsible or deserving enough to vote for a real representative in Congress.