A couple of weeks ago, the Supreme Court finally did [1] what it had previously refused to do since its inception: rule that the 2nd Amendment to the Constitution protects an individual right to keep and bear arms.  While many expected the court to reverse the incredibly harsh DC ban on handguns, it came as a shock to some that the Supreme Court would actually take such a decisive stance on the 2nd Amendment.  Personally, I expected the ruling to be much more narrow in focus, perhaps sidestepping the entire issue of individual gun rights altogether.  It would seem that the Supreme Court isn't entirely worthless after all.

Of course, it took 32 years for the ban to get struck down.  Better late than never?  Tell that to all of the murder victims in DC (which has the highest murder rate in the nation, by the way).  Sure, most of them probably wouldn't have been able or willing to use a handgun to defend themselves.  But surely at least some of them would have, if not for the tyrannical DC gun laws.

When I first heard the news of the court's ruling, I contacted many of my friends to tell them.  One made a comment that I thought was a bit shocking at first -- he was disappointed.  Knowing his previous support for gun rights, I questioned his reaction to which he explained "The decision was only 5 to 4.  Which means we were only one vote away from losing it all."   He made a good point.  There have been many times in history where we've almost lost the right to bear arms.  But I can think of no incident in which so much was riding on the vote of only one person.

While this decision was a great victory, it does also highlights how divided our nation has become on many of the core issues in both politics and society.  The Supreme Court in this case probably serves as representative of the general population: while more people support gun rights than oppose them, that majority isn't all that huge anymore.  A quick look at the TV news coverage of this decision will verify that -- the court's decision only received about a week's worth of mainstream coverage -- much less than most celebrity gossip stories.

Only time will tell if this is only the first of many major gun rights cases the Supreme Court will hear.  But meanwhile, let us remember that rights not exercised are usually lost.