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Shares for Smith & Wesson Holding, the famed firearms maker, were up yesterday on the heels of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that affirms states are bound to protect the right to bear arms.
As Justice Samuel Alito, who considers “self-defense” to be a “basic right,” argued, gun ownership is “necessary to our system of ordered liberty” (via Dow Jones Newswires).
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While the argument may seem predictable to advocates of the Second Amendment, the Colorado Springs Gazette‘s opinion is more obscure.
In an editorial entitled “Gun bans kill black people,” the newspaper, which cheers the ruling, looks at how the decision views people of color. The paper admittedly risks being “gauche” in comparing Jim Crow laws to gun bans, writing that the “McDonald ruling” comes at a time when homicides in Chicago—where the case originates—are equal to the combined death toll of Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan this year. Eighty percent of the victims are black.
“If, as petitioners believe, their safety and the safety of other law-abiding members of the community would be enhanced by the possession of handguns in the home for self-defense, then the Second Amendment right protects the rights of minorities and other residents of high-crime areas,” the ruling states.
Other newspapers have been less optimistic in their editorials. The Washington Post, for instance, hopes that judges don’t use the decision to overturn all gun-control laws, as some lawmakers (and other newspapers) may be prone to want. Meanwhile, during tonight’s city council meeting, Longmont officials will consider an open-carry ban in local government buildings, reports the Times-Call.