Reason Magazine on Heller
Reason magazine, a major libertarian publication, has an article on the Heller case: In retrospect, D.C. v. Heller seems almost inevitable, because of shifting public and academic attitudes toward gun rights. But victory came only after a protracted struggle, with many pitfalls along the way. It was pulled off by a small gang of philosophically dedicated lawyers -- not "gun nuts" in any stereotypical sense, but thoughtful libertarians who believe Second Amendment liberties are a vital part of our free republic. Together they consciously crafted a solid, clean civil rights case to overturn the most onerous and restrictive set of gun regulations in the country. In the process, they set the stage for further legal challenges to other firearms restrictions from coast to coast.There's an important but unstated subtext here, in the context of the last two elections: Heller was brought by a legal team of libertarians, and privately funded by a wealthy individual associated with the Cato Institute, another libertarian organization. Traditional Republican organizations were mostly silent on the issue. Even those organizations associated with gun rights were less than helpful; the largest and most influential such organization went so far as to file the Seegars case in an attempt to disrupt the case which would become Heller v DC at the Supreme Court level. Meanwhile, four Republicans have taken it upon themselves to introduce their own version of an assault weapons ban. You may recall that fiasco in 1994 was originally a Democratic idea, and it cost them control of congress and, arguably, the Presidency. Why weren't the NRA and the Republicans leading the charge? I don't know, but I suspect that their loss of limited-government leadership on this issue and many others is part of the reason they lost their leadership of Congress in 2006 and the Presidency in 2008. We depend on interest groups and politicians to lead the way, with the courage of their convictions if not exactly a fixed-bayonet charge, and with respect to the 2nd Amendment both the Republican party and the NRA failed to recognize a leadership opportunity when it bit them in the ass. I am slightly disappointed that the Reason article doesn't mention my in-depth reporting on the Parker v DC case -- the case which eventually became Heller v DC. To my knowledge I was the only news source actually posting and commenting on full documents from the case. But I suppose I can't have everything. |
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