Victory On Heller

The long-awaited decision in the case of D.C. vs Heller was announced at a few minutes after ten this morning. It was a 5-to-4 victory for the Second Amendment.

The blogosphere exploded with news, celebration and commentary. What a wonderful day!

So much has been written today that I don't think I can add much to the celebration. At one point my Google Reader had 73 unread posts, all of them about the decision. The Volokh Conspiracy was inaccessible to me for most of the day; they tried to save themselves by cutting off comments, but their overloaded server still crashed, taking them out of action for ninety minutes. The brave men and women at SCOTUSblog soldiered on, liveblogging, against incredible odds.

There are a few posts that really stand out: Breda posted a victory dance, then went to the range; Caleb gave us fireworks; Brigid baked a pie; Robb Allen popped a bottle of champagne, then posted a photo of an unhappy loser; Bitter and Sebastian shared a special after-dinner drink. There were excellent posts from everybody about this landmark decision and it's impossible to cite everybody without the danger of leaving someone out - you know who you are!

Fifteen minutes after the announcement the Illinois State Rifle Association filed suit to overturn the Chicago gun ban. Good!! Allen Gura is their attorney, and they already have a website up!

About the 5-to-4 decision:
1) I wish that it had been more lopsided, but
2) the fact that it was so close indicates that Scalia got every iota of concurrence he could and still retain a winning margin, and
3) it shows how vulnerable we are to losing our rights if just one or two Federal judges decide to reason them away in the name of "public safety" or "public order" or whatever the "crisis of the moment" is. "Fighting terrorism", for example.

Jack Weinstein, I'm looking at you!

Somebody (Clint Smith?) once said, "A pistol is what you use to fight your way back to your rifle." Today we might say, "The Second Amendment is what you use to fight your way back to the First Amendment."