The Supreme Court Of The United States (SCOTUS) has made some really interesting decisions over the last few years on a number of things, including guns with the Bruen decision. For those of us with more Constitutionalist viewpoints (such as supporting 2A rights), many of those decisions have been welcome and are long past due.
Recently, however, the court handed down a decision that some in the firearms community find concerning, whether due to a strict interpretation of the Second Amendment (which is the correct interpretation) or because of the potential for abuse.
Matthew Vadum gives us the details:
The Supreme Court ruled 6–3 on May 23 in favor of the federal government in a case about how sentences under a federal three-strikes gun law should be imposed on defendants previously convicted of violent felonies or major drug offenses.Justice Samuel Alito wrote the majority opinion in Brown v. United States, which was consolidated with Jackson v. United States. The vote did not break down along traditional conservative versus liberal ideological lines, with one liberal justice joining the majority and a conservative justice siding with dissenters.
Federal law prohibits convicted felons from possessing firearms.
The often-litigated Armed Career Criminal Act (ACCA) was enacted in 1984 in response to concerns that a small number of repeat offenders were committing a disproportionate number of crimes.
The law requires that a 15-year minimum sentence be imposed on people found guilty of illegally possessing a firearm who have three or more prior convictions for “a serious drug offense” or violent felonies such as burglary “committed on occasions different from one another.”
I have to admit that I’m of a mixed mind about this decision.
On the one hand, people who repeatedly commit violent crimes are people that have shown (and continue to show) that they are dangerous people who will almost certainly continue to do awful things with people. These are people who we don’t want out on the street.
On the other hand, I’m a Second Amendment purist. I don’t think that people lose their Second Amendment rights for any reason (so shouldn’t be criminally charged for just having a firearm).
I do think, though, that the solution to keeping people with violent tendencies in check is for those people to know that more and more (and, ideally, most) people are armed, trained, and willing to use force at a distance (a firearm) to prevent violent crimes. In other words, if people take up their Second Amendment rights and arm themselves instead of depending on law enforcement to be able to be there all of the time to protect them, then, would-be violent criminals would be less likely to act on those violent tendencies. After all, most of them aren’t wanting to leave the gene pool early.
But, maybe I’m wrong with some of my viewpoints. What do you think about this decision? Tell us below.