The verdict is now in from the U.S. Supreme Court--the Second Amendment means what it says. In a historic 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court ruled in District of Columbia v. Heller that no government entity--local, state, or federal--can totally ban handguns from law-abiding, local citizens.
As Associate Justice Scalia stated in his majority opinion, "The enshrinement of constitutional rights necessarily takes certain policy choices off the table. Those include the absolute prohibition of handguns held and used for self-defense in the home."
Scalia's majority opinion is a masterpiece of jurisprudence and sound legal reasoning. In the future, when anyone asks what someone means when they say they want federal judges who are "strict constructionist, original intent jurists," one need simply refer them to Justice Scalia's opinion in District of Columbia v. Heller as the prime example of what such a jurist's opinions will look like.
The delight of those who believe that the Second Amendment does guarantee the individual right to "keep and bear arms" is tempered by the fact that four justices (Stevens, Souter, Ginsburg and Breyer) disagreed vehemently with the majority (Scalia, Roberts, Kennedy, Thomas, and Alito). The stark reality is the individual right to "keep and bear arms" rests currently on the fragile foundation of a single Supreme Court justice's vote.
The next president could quite possibly nominate judges who fill up to three Supreme Court vacancies--yet one more issue for American voters to ponder as they prepare to cast their ballots for the 44th president of the United States this November.
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Diana Butler Bass is a religion scholar and author of Christianity for the Rest of Us: How the Neighborhood Church is Transforming the Faith. She blogs at 
Tony Campolo is Professor Emeritus at Eastern University and author of The God of Intimacy and Action: Reconnecting Ancient Spiritual Practices, Evangelism, and Justice, with Mary Darling. He blogs at 
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Every time the NRA gets a victory, crime rate goes up. The more people own hand guns, the more people will die. The odds of people needing hand guns to defend their homes is infinitesimal to the people killed by the same guns by criminals.
Guns don't kill people. People with guns (legal and illegal) kill people they know, families, co-workers, bosses, neighbors etc. Now the Supreme Court has ruled that hand guns are to be protected as an endangered species. They also ruled that child rapists don't deserve to die, even though Jesus said it would be better that they be drowned in the deepest sea.
This is not historic in the good sense, it is tragic.
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