Battle over gun rights not over

To the editor:

We won in the Supreme Court. The right to keep and bear arms is safe. The banning bunnies are defeated once and for all.

Dream on.

What the court said is that people have the right to keep and bear arms for personal protection and for hunting purposes and that there can be reasonable restrictions on the Second Amendment. What the court didn't say is that an armed populace was put in place as a barrier to tyranny. It said that none of the Bill of Rights is absolute. The way is now open for the loony Left to start with their reasonable restrictions.

What is needed is a congressional study to find one of those restrictions that are not reasonable to the Left. Al Gore thought that all handguns should be banned and that all gun owners should have a federal license to possess any gun. Bill Clinton thought that "assault weapons" should be banned, which translates into an Australian-style ban on all semi-automatics. Barack Obama backed legislation that would have banned all gun stores within five miles of a school. That would essentially mean that Baker Valley would be a gun-free zone. Obama is now a Second Amendment supporter after backing the D.C. gun ban.

Enjoy the fantasy for now, because the urban Left will be back. Down the road the rural Right will come to understand that the only way to protect themselves from the urban elite is to re-examine the secession issue and put political barriers between them and the urban Left. This issue too is not settled; the North won militarily but the legal parts are still out there.

Steve Culley

Baker City