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U.S. Needs Legislation to Protect Gun Rights
Caitlin Huey-Burns
NRA cheers Supreme Court decision as a win for Second Amendment supporters
In 1982,
Excerpts:
What does this ruling mean?
The Second Amendment as an individual right becomes a real part of American constitutional law, and I think that's a vindication for the great majority of Americans who have always believed this is an individual right and worth defending. The question the
How far does this new ruling go?
It clearly reflects something that's at the very core of American consciousness, which is, I have a God-given constitutional right to own a firearm and protect myself. The task now is to make this real, city by city, town by town, and state by state, and to make this constitutional individual right real now for citizens around the country. And only when that happens will the NRA declare a victory.
Will local officials be able to have any say in creating gun laws?
There are always behavioral restrictions on the books which the NRA supports. The drug dealers with guns, gangs with guns, violent felons with guns, they are all prohibited from touching a firearm. Those laws need to be enforced, and the NRA supports them. What the NRA is working for is a program called Project Exile to put laws in every American city under which every time a drug dealer or a gang member or a felon touches a gun, you prosecute the criminals 100 percent of the time and take them off the street and put them in jail. And that's the only thing that works. That program cut crime by 70 percent in
Is there anything about the
I think the real challenge is going to be getting law-abiding citizens access to it. The individual freedom in the
What are the next steps for the NRA?
We are going to keep working to fight for this freedom. It is just words on a piece of paper until someone battles for them. We are one of the last countries in world where citizens have a constitutional right to own a firearm, but they have to fight to protect it. American culture is deeply embedded in the individual right to own a firearm. And the NRA's strength, I've always said, is a reflection of how the American public feels about that freedom. The good news is that the American public overwhelmingly supports this freedom.
Are there any court cases coming up that involve gun rights?
It's almost like what happened after Brown v. Board of Education, when politicians and segregationists tried to deny and prevent the
How would
Her record is the Clinton administration's record, which was one of the most anti-Second Amendment administrations in the history of
What should
I would hope that
Are you worried about any negative impact this ruling could have?
No, because bad guys have no protection in the Second Amendment to the Constitution. The whole McDonald decision is about good people and not bad people. Bad people are offered no protection. The point is, the bad guys already have the guns. They couldn't care less about the McDonald case. I think what
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U.S. Needs Legislation to Protect Gun Rights
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