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Old June 29, 2010, 09:50 AM   #100
mack59
Senior Member
 
Join Date: July 14, 2004
Posts: 447
I agree with Mike Irwin on the likelyhood of McDonald and/or Heller being overturned by a future court - you would need four justices like Breyer to approach that - just like Roe vs Wade was not overturned by a conservative court neither will McDonald or Heller be overturned by a liberal one. The court just doesn't work that way. Also the court doesn't exist in a complete political vacuum - and a reveral would so seriously undermine the legitimacy of the court at this point that I really can't see it happening.

That said, I could well see a liberal court that would verbally acknowledge Heller and McDonald while essentially making decisions that make the individual RKBA an empty suit. In other words that court would verbally acknowledge the RKBA as an individual right - but allow so many infringements on that right that it would become toothless and meaningless.

But I don't see that happening in the short term either - public opinion is powerful and the pendulum of public opinion is still swinging our way - and I believe that it will continue to do so for some time. Guns, gun ownership, the right to carry, and the right to self defense are becoming more acceptable not less in the eyes of the general public. The courts current endorsement of an individual right will only feed and strenghten that view with the public.

Twenty years ago it was fashionable for many politicians to state the there was no RKBA and that guns or handguns should be banned. Today many of those same politicians are at pains to say that there is an individual RKBA and that they don't support banning guns.
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