Wonkette

That Second Amendment case is gonna be hosed either way. On the face of it, the Second Amendment guarantees the rights of states to form militias. Ever since they federalized the state militias into the National Guard 105 years ago, that's been tossed in the garbage along with the "no standing army" pipe dream.

Either way, they're really going to have to stretch to claim handgun ownership has much to do with "the people's right to keep and bear arms." Says here they will.

You know what will stop the war? People getting really really loud ! That's a great idea!

What if we as a society have a collective right to own a gun, but only one gun between us all? How do we decide who gets to use it, and when? And how do we get all 300 million of the signatures on the license?

SC is going to rule: yes there is an individual right to bear arms, but the government can impose "reasonable restrictions." The net effect will be that nothing of any substance will really change other than a tweaking of the rhetoric of the opposing sides. The Supreme Court will never take an "originalist" or "strict constructionist" reading of the 2nd amendment* because they know that within a week, some disgruntled nutjob will down an airliner packed with 11th graders on a European school trip (or worse: a plane filled with baseball players en route to a game) with a Stinger missile.

*Let's face it: if the 2nd amendment really is there so that the people can protect themselves from the government, then it follows that the people have a right to bear the same sorts of weapons that the government does. And no one outside Ron Paul's circle of followers is willing to go taht far.

Actually, "arms" in the 18th century sense means muskets and cannon. So we get to keep Jed Clampitt's shootin' iron and a 105mm howitzer.

@Serolf Divad: Snark-free, the basic question for DC residents is "handgun ban and long arms disabled, or not?" I imagine the SC will say, "Suck it, DC," since that's not a "reasonable" restriction to the majority of the court, while not opening up the right to keep and bear Patriot batteries.

Machine gun and sawed-off shotgun enthusiasts will still be forced to get the Class III license and pay the transfer fee.

@Lazy Media:
Yeah, DC will probably have to allow people to keep guns in their homes for self-defense. I doubt that will have much of an effect either way. Probably see a small rise in spousal homicide. You most certainly won't see the precipitous drop in crime that 2nd amendment enthusiasts (AKA gun nuts) would like to believe.

A group of North Avenue Irregulars [www.imdb.com], being necessary to the security of Ron Paul's Free State Project on the International Space Station, the right of the people to keep and bear H-bombs in briefcases and hypersonic bowel unclencheners, shall not be infringed.

@Serolf Divad: No kidding. Professionally bad people already do the gun violence thing in DC, and most other people keep guns the way politicians keep their marriage vows -- unused and mostly forgotten.

@Lazy Media: You know seriously, handguns and shotguns are OK, but there's nothing quite as intimidating to would-be burglars and thugs than the sound of a piece of field artillery being locked and loaded upstairs in the bedroom.

Anti-war demonstrations again? Now the streets will be clogged with maybe hundreds of people all of whom can't decide what to protest about.

FREE MUMIA!

You'll pry my raw sewage trebuchet FROM MY COLD DEAD FINGERS!

I'll be out there, protesting the protestors and protests in general.

@Lazy Media: Sounds great to me with my front stuffer smoke ploes and my cap n' ball hogleg... but I want a cannon of my own. a little mountain howitzer from the 1870s would be nice but I'd settle for a coehoorn mortar. Unfortunately for my dream of artillery, I'd need a cannoneers licence and only two guys in Masterbachusetts have 'em. I wanna be ready for the giant 30 foot mutant escargot that will be certain to be landed by alien dirigibles right after zombie apocalypse. Oh and I like the raw sewage trebuchet.. great technology, whats the range? As far as Militias go, I already created one, but I don't issue guns because I recruit with beer. We do have spears and a catapault though. I appointed myself Queen Generallissimo, you'd be surprised to see how many stalwarts muster in...

Remember years and years ago when Dick Cheney went to talk to his gun nut supporters out West and they all had to disarm before they could get into the speech? I told my gun nut friends I thought that was funny but they didn't get it at all. Shit, so now even if I can't bring a big bottle of $135 face cream on the plane I should at least be able to bring my purse gun with me. Yay!
My big problem when ever I get shot at in the city is that I can never tell which one to shoot back at exactly. No, I'm not joking.