A Shot in the Dark

I have to admit I am a bit baffled by the lack of blogosphere coverage of today's groundbreaking, seriously important decision out of the DC Circuit Court of Appeals, which overturned the District's longstanding ban on handguns. How Appealing has some coverage, and as you would expect, that gun-lovin' wacko Instapundit gives out links but little independent analysis. He seems to have disabled the Volokh Conspiracy with a multi-pronged Instalanche, which is a damn shame. Eugene Volokh became the blawgger go-to guy on the Second Amendement by being that rarest of intellectuals: a guy who had an opinion, which he later changed on the basis of an honest look at the evidence.

The case was heard by a three judge panel, which split 2-1. It is interesting that the majority so wholeheartedly embraced the idea that the 2nd Amendment really does mean what it says, and confers an individual right that they earned an approving nod from the Cato Institute. The dissent seems to me, admittedly a non-lawyer, as just plain weird: Judge Henderson argues that the meaning of the 2nd Amendment in regards to the District of Columbia is purely academic, because the District of Columbia is not a state. I await rulings on what other constitutional provisions and amendments do not apply in the District of Columbia, with special interest in the First, Fourth, Fifth, and Fourteenth. And given the eternal mouthiness of Eleanor Holmes Norton, possibly the Nineteenth.