Beer in the Headlights

The Supreme Court says Americans have a right to own guns for self-defense and hunting, the justices' first major pronouncement on gun rights in U.S. history.

The court's 5-4 ruling strikes down the District of Columbia's 32-year-old ban on handguns as incompatible with gun rights under the Second Amendment. The decision goes further than even the Bush administration wanted, but probably leaves most firearms laws intact.

Well, we've always had the right - at least since the Constitution was ratified - to own firearms. The Supreme Court just affirmed that right by ruling Washington DC's gun ban as unconstitutional.

The big winners in this ruling are those that have been illegally disarmed by authoritarian state and local governments.