The US Supreme Court tomorrow will take a new look at the right to bear arms in a case that could have an impact on the growing push by US President Barack Obama’s opponents to loosen gun laws.
The nation’s top court will decide whether its landmark June 2008 decision recognizing the right of every US citizen to possess arms for self-defense should apply to local as well as federal laws.
Local regulations have increasingly been at the forefront in the battle over gun control in the US, where some 200 million firearms are in circulation and the right to bear arms is enshrined by the Constitution.
While Obama has not moved to curb gun freedoms, arms sales have shot up since his election in 2008 and conservatives deeply suspicious of his intentions have stepped up efforts to promote arms.
“State legislatures are flexing their conservative muscle and passing some laws that they would not otherwise have been able to pass,” said Peter Hamm of the Brady Campaign, a gun control advocacy group named after former US president Ronald Reagan’s spokesman, who was severely injured in the assassination bid on the president.
In Virginia, the legislature is on track to legalize the carrying of guns in bars and to drop restrictions that residents can only buy one firearm a month.
Such measures can pass due to last year’s election of Republican Governor Bob McDonnell. His Democratic predecessor, Tim Kaine, supported some gun rules after the 2007 massacre of 32 people at Virginia Tech University.
Among other states, Tennessee last year approved a law allowing the carrying of guns in establishments serving alcohol and Arizona is looking at measures to allow arms on university campuses and without licenses.
At the federal level, US lawmakers have blocked the capital city of Washington from voting representation in Congress due to opposition to its gun laws.
Meanwhile, the US has seen a continual gun violence. Last month, a woman biology professor killed three staff members at an Alabama university; a month earlier, eight people were killed in another Virginia shooting.
Hamm said the Brady Campaign was “severely disappointed” in the Obama administration, which did not fight a new law allowing guns in national parks and trains after lawmakers attached it to unrelated legislation.
But Eugene Volokh, a professor of law at the University of California at Los Angeles, said that Obama’s election led to a spurt of concern and sales among gun enthusiasts.
“A Democratic president coupled with a Democratic Congress coupled with occasional talk from Democratic leaders about banning guns or at least substantial restrictions — actually people do worry, why wouldn’t they?” he asked.
The powerful National Rifle Association has waged a major push against the president under the slogan, “Obama would be the most anti-gun president in American history.”
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS