Positive Liberty

Ask, and you shall receive. Concede, and you shall lose. The DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA ET AL. v. HELLER is in — and most of the news is good.

The Justices ruled that the language of the Second Amendment indicates its purpose is for militias, but that the amendment lacks language that limits the use of weapons to only the purpose. The Second Amendment is an individual right.

They also state that individual Americans can own commonly used firearms for self-defense purposes, but that they are not opening up the box on a host of other regulations involving bans on more exotic weapons, laws restricting felons and mentally-ill people, sales rules, concealed carry laws, and the like.

But they did rule that because the handgun is a common weapon of choice for self-defense, the DC ban on handguns is unconstitutional — and that includes rules for trigger locks or disassembly of the firearm because it would render the gun useless at the moment of self-defense.

But there is one caveat — one bit of bad news — that should be strategically instructive here. This bill Continue Reading »

If you read only one item today, it should be “A Setback for the State of Exception,” by Scott Horton.

Meanwhile, I’ll have a longish post up on Hegel’s Philosophy of Right later this evening, as the first installment of “Collectivism and Science Fiction.” The sections to read are here. Advance questions are welcome.