Supreme Court Ends Term With a Bang

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The just-concluded term of the United States Supreme Court was marked by the retirement of one justice (John Paul Stevens), the all-but-certain confirmation of another (Elena Kagan), and by a ruling granting corporations permission to spend as much money as they want to influence political campaigns.

Now the Court has confirmed what everybody else has believed for years, given all the headlines about violence in the streets:  America has become a shooting gallery.  In a 5-4 vote split among predictable ideological lines, they overturned stringent gun laws in Chicago and its suburb Oak Park, IL.  In their view, the Second Amendment of the Constitution (which is the right to keep and bear arms) restricts governments from prohibiting firearms use in their jurisdictions.

Gun laws, which have been in place since the assassinations of the 1960s, have succeeded in requiring responsible citizens to register their weapons.  However, the majority of crimes involving guns are committed not just by those who don't bother to register, but also by kids who think it might be fun to play with their parents' guns--with disastrous consequences.

One of the biggest winners in all this is the National Rifle Association, which has been championing the rights of every law-abiding citizen to own a firearm for decades.  The NRA has also beaten back every attempt by Washington to enact tougher gun laws, even when some lone wolf shoots up a school or a military base.  They have become so powerful that even the White House, regardless of party, won't touch them.

So does this mean that America will become a more violent nation than it already is, or a more peaceful one because every man, woman and child is packing heat?  Only the Supreme Court knows for sure.