Take Scalia’s words

Justice Scalia became the darling of the NRA in 2008 when he wrote the majority opinion in DC v. Heller, which established an individual right to gun ownership, although few judicial precedents supported that opinion.

Shortly, the NRA will begin lobbying to further relax controls on gun ownership as it seems inevitably to do following major carnage. In this moment in history we need to use Scalia’s own official words to push back strongly against such notions: “Like most rights, the right secured by the Second Amendment is not unlimited … [it is] … not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose.”

“Nothing in our opinion should 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.”

“… the sorts of weapons protected were those “in common use at the time.” [We support] the historical tradition of prohibiting the carrying of ‘dangerous and unusual weapons.’”

Legislators, please read these words and do your jobs!

Greg Presley

Spokane