Dear Editor,

The general public has been led astray by the NRA and its cohorts in the gun industry. Gun rights MAY be regulated – thus infringed. The Supreme Court said so.

The majority opinion in the recent case, written by Justice Scalia – a staunch conservative, clearly says the right is not absolute as it says: “Like most rights, the right secured by the Second Amendment is not unlimited…”. It is “…not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose.”

“Nothing in our opinion should be taken to cast doubt on longstanding prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings, or laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms.”

“We also recognize another important limitation on the right to keep and carry arms. Miller (an earlier case) said, as we have explained, that the sorts of weapons protected were those ‘in common use at the time’. We think that limitation is fairly supported by the historical tradition of prohibiting the carrying of ‘dangerous and unusual weapons’.”

Sincerely,

Rich Ives

Owego, N.Y.