WOW. This thread has grown quickly. I hope this hasn't been posted yet. I searched this forum for the string "VPC" and the most recent return was in April of this year. 'Thought everyone would get a kick out of the Violence Policy Center Action Network's latest mailout to their members.
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Dear Violence Policy Center Action Network Member:
Following today's 5-4 Supreme Court opinion (
http://www.vpc.org/heller.pdf) overturning Washington, DC's handgun ban, but apparently allowing for the retention of the law's ban on most semiautomatic weapons, including semiautomatic handguns, the Violence Policy Center issued the following statement from Legislative Director Kristen Rand:
"Today's opinion turns legal logic and common sense on its head. As measured in gun death and injury, handguns are our nation's most lethal category of firearm: accounting for the vast majority of the 30,000 Americans who die from guns each year. Handguns are our nation's leading murder and suicide tool. Yet the majority opinion offers the greatest offender the strongest legal protection. It's analogous to the Court carving out special constitutional protection for child pornography in a First Amendment case.
"In its ruling, the Court has ignored our nation's history of mass shootings, assassinations, and unparalleled gun violence. It has instead accepted an abstract academic argument with dangerous real-world results for residents of the District of Columbia. Thankfully, because the plaintiff in Heller did not challenge the District's ban on 'machine guns,' Washington, DC's ban on most semiautomatic weapons, including semiauto handguns, should be unaffected."
For the full release, and background information on why under the ruling DC's ban on semiauto handguns should remain intact, please see:
http://www.vpc.org/press/0806heller.htm.
The Court's opinion was authored by 2007 Sport Shooting Ambassador Award winner Antonin Scalia. For more information on Justice Scalia's gun industry award, please see:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/josh-sugarmann/sport-shooting-ambassador_b_109367.html
As we conduct additional analysis on the potential effects of the ruling, we will keep you updated.
Thank you, as always, for your efforts to stop gun death and injury.
Sincerely,
Josh Sugarmann
Executive Director