Don't look now, but it seems the media have suddenly discovered a respect for states' rights. All it took was a Supreme Court ruling affirming the Second Amendment's role in protecting gun owners' rights from state or local infringement.
Newsweek called the ruling [1] “bad news” for gun controllers because “the right to 'keep and bear arms' in the U.S. Constitution's 2nd Amendment restricts state and local power to impose gun controls.”
The ruling found that local and state governments cannot simply ban gun ownership. It left the door open for some restrictions, but the extent of those restrictions remains largely untested.
CNN declared the ruling [2] “a potentially far-reaching case over the ability of state and local governments to enforce limits on weapons.”
MSNBC's Morning Joe contributors were devastated by the court's ruling.
“Gun owners win. Gun rights win. Big cities lose. I mean, any time you make it easier for guns to be on the streets of big cities or any city, actually, we lose as citizens,” Mike Barnacle said.
Richard Haass said there was a “gap” between “the theory that the Court is deciding on about a fairly broad interpretation of Second Amendment rights and the realities as mayors see it.” He bemoaned that “this is obviously going to have repercussions in every city and every state across the country.”
A recent MSNBC report [3], however, found that gun ownership has increased over the years while gun homicides have decreased.
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