This Needs to be Clarified..

My opinion on Judge Sotomayor has been fairly neutral so far but if the Repubs roll over and confirm her without asking how she'd interpret the Second Amendment maybe the party itself should roll over. To wit:

Just six months after Heller, however, Sotomayor issued an opinion in Maloney v. Cuomo that the protections of the Second Amendment do not apply to the states, and that if your city or state wants to ban all guns, then they have the right to disarm you. Such an opinion seems to fly directly in the face of Heller, exposing Sotomayor as an anti-gun radical who will affirm full-on gun prohibitions and believes that you have no right to own a firearm, even for the most basic right of defending your family in your own home.

But one might say, 'Heller still protects individuals from having their entire right to own a firearm stripped away', which sounds correct, as long as the Heller ruling still stands. Obama has tip-toed around this issue in the past, giving the impression he's not coming after firearms...

“Even if I want to take them away, I don’t have the votes in Congress,’

But would he need votes in Congress if the SCOTUS rules that local and state governments right to control guns trumps the Bill of Rights? Most major cities are run by Democrat mayors/city councils I'd gather, but is that even possible? This may be overblown right wing paranoia but let's see her grilled on the gun issue just a bit, to see how and where she comes down.

Webb and the gun

This really is quite an entertaining story:

Members of Congress and designated employees can bring unloaded guns into the Capitol. The lawmakers can even load the guns once inside their offices. But there is a hitch: They cannot bring guns through the District's streets on their way to the Capitol grounds.

What else should anyone expect from a town built on bureaucracy? This ranks up there with some state fireworks laws, which allow vendors to sell them but prohibits citizens from setting them off. By the way, Congress seems to have an exemption other Federal workers don't enjoy. If Joe Federal worker (with a legal conceal/carry permit) drives to work with the gun in the glovebox and the gun is then found on Federal property, a crime has been committed.

It's not overly surprising that Congressfolk would exempt themselves in light of the shooting that took place in the Capitol some years back, but we all know about Postal workers, so hypocrisy seems to run quite rampant on this issue. Remember the Rosie O'Donnell thing? All providing ample reasons why the Second Amendment should not be toyed with.

In some good news, the Tennessee Senate just yesterday made it quite clear that the Governor's powers to confiscate firearms during emergencies are to remain limited.