The Hog Blog

I’d be remiss if I didn’t at least mention last week’s “momentous” Supreme Court ruling in the case of D.C. vs. Heller.  It’s hardly news at this point, and if you’re disappointed that I didn’t cover it sooner…well, sorry.  There are far too many politics and gun rights blogs, newspapers, sites, and organizations out there who are much better prepared to trumpet this news to the world… complete with their own spin and prognostication. 

Personally, while I think its a good deal that the decision came down on the side of reason, I don’t think it was quite the victory the gun rights crowd was hoping for.  What surprised me more than anything was the blatant retort from the dissenting Justices who, in essence, argued that there’s no such thing as an individual right to bear arms.  I expected some kind of wrangling about the “greater good” and public interest, but not for any of them to come right out and say that the American People have no right to arm themselves in self-defense. 

Anyway, it’s not over yet.  There’s still a lot of room open for firearm restrictions.  They’ll just have to be tailored against the letter of the law as it was just defined.  A roomful of lawyers can handle that well enough, and you can be sure they will… and the fight will go on and on. 

Anyway, unless something truly big comes down the pike on this issue, I’ll leave discussion of this topic to those more inclined, such as Tom Remington over at the Black Bear Blog.  Tom’s right on top of this, and just wrote a really nicely done post regarding the implications of the decision, as well as a great summary of the justification provided by Justice Scalia. 

In the meantime, I’m all for staying involved at all levels (and I do), but as far as the Hog Blog goes, we’re gonna focus on keeping an eye on the small stuff, like the lead ban and hog hunting legislation.