…are what government says they are. Last week, though, the 9th Circuit, in a 2-1 decision, struck down a San Diego County, California law that asserted exactly that. This law
requir[ed] residents to show a “pressing need” in order to get a permit to carry weapons in public.
However,
The judges found that in order to receive a permit, a person need only show a desire to defend himself outside the home.
Judge Diarmuid O’Scannlain, writing for the court, clearly does understand the situation. Addressing three other Appellate Court rulings upholding public carry restrictions (a fourth Appellate Court struck such restrictions), he wrote
they misapprehend both the nature of the Second Amendment right and the implications of state laws that prevent the majority of responsible, law-abiding citizens from carrying in public for lawful self-defense reasons.
Jon Lowy, Director, Legal Action Project of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, demurred, however:
Neither history nor precedent supports this aberrant, split decision that concocts a dangerous right to carry hidden handguns in public places to people whom law enforcement has determined…have no good cause or qualifications to do so.
Rights are what a Progressive government says they are, according to this Progressive.
No, Mr Lowry. You clearly do not understand inalienable rights, nor our Constitution. The right to life is inalienable, and it carries with it the inalienable right to self-defense. Neither are “concocted rights.” These rights, moreover, carry within them the right to possess the means with which to carry out that defense. Everywhere. These inalienable rights are not at all limited to places convenient to government. Full Stop.
Moreover, the 2nd Amendment of our Constitution says this:
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.
The binding document, within which our governments—at all levels—must operate, has said all there is to say on our right to keep and bear arms. Especially in public. Governments have very little at all to add regarding “good cause or qualifications.” Full Stop.