By Bob Barney-The Plain Truth

By a 5-4 margin, the Supreme Court declared that the Bill of Rights are still in force - at least for now. The court was considering a handgun law in Chicago that was very similar to the DC law that it ruled against in 2008. The 5 to 4 decision does not strike any other gun control measures currently in place, but it provides a legal basis for challenges across the country where gun owners think that government has been too restrictive. Although most gun owners may be happy today, the court did NOT declare what the second amendment actually states!  The victory is hallow, but still important, in that it forestalls the continual dissolution of the people's rights to bear arms.

"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."   That's what it says!  The right of the people to bear arms shall not be infringed! Sounds pretty simple, but the court hasn't, even in this decision, adhered the the words and meaning of the second amendment.  They still allow background checks, and other constitutionally illegal restrictions on the rights of the people to bear arms.

"It is clear that the Framers . . . counted the right to keep and bear arms among those fundamental rights necessary to our system of ordered liberty," Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. wrote for the conservatives on the court.  Ironically, Alito said government can restrict gun ownership in certain instances but did not elaborate on what those would be. That will be determined in future litigation.