Scalia recognized that 2nd Amendment right is not unlimited

Published Date

To the editor,
Everyone has their favorite court cases about gun rights. I'd like to add mine to the mix. Justice Anton Scalia is not my favorite justice but none could have said it better than he did in his opinion in the Heller vs. District of Columbia case in 2008; Pp. 54–56:
"Like most rights, the Second Amendment right is not unlimited. It is not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose: For example, concealed weapons prohibitions have been upheld under the Amendment or state analogues. The Court's opinion should not be taken to cast doubt on longstanding prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings, or laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms. Miller's holding that the sorts of weapons protected are those "in common use at the time" finds support in the historical tradition of prohibiting the carrying of dangerous and unusual weapons." .
The core of the ruling was that the DC law unduly limited the natural right of self-defense. No matter what state courts say, the Supremes rule.
James Veverka
Tilton