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Court Ruling Sends Joy A-Popping

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By TOM JACKSON

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 29, 2008

News of random violence from certain portions of the county notwithstanding, here on the northern tier of the Tampa Bay area we strive to be a civilized and safety-conscious society. So the pop-pop-poppa-de-pop-pop you may have heard 'round noon Thursday was not the report of celebratory small-arms fire strafing the sky - as oddly appropriate as that may have been.

No, it was - according to stories reaching Art Hayhoe's pricking ears - the explosion of corks from magnums of champagne stashed for just such an occasion. Champagne, it stands to reason, that traces its spiritual roots to James Madison's Montpelier vineyards.

The U.S. Supreme Court's decision that obliterated Washington, D.C.'s handgun ban and trigger-lock requirement while declaring, not an instant too soon, an individualized right to own firearms, plainly was a victory for gun-rights advocates. However, we invoke Mr. Madison not on their behalf, but in honor of less-militant Americans who haven't and may never lay in even a modest arsenal but who nonetheless respect the Constitution's original intent, and rejoice whenever the court upholds it and by extension, its noble author.

Which, as the people of Louisiana - federalists all and ill-disposed to coddle child rapists with cushy life sentences - recently discovered, is not often enough. Evolving standards and proportionality indeed. Where exactly is that written? Squeezed somewhere between "cruel" and "unusual"?

But, back to the celebration. Hayhoe is at least partially accurate - a small triumph in an otherwise crushing arc of history. "I feel like I've had a bottle of wine," bubbled Beacon Wood's Bill Bunting, "but I haven't touched a glass. ... I've been smiling all day."

Redrawing Battle Lines

Bunting, the chiseled face of unfettered gun ownership in Pasco County and, increasingly, all of the Sunshine State, never doubted. Addressing the Land O' Lakes-based Second Amendment Club of America (who knew?) at a candidates forum in New Port Richey on Monday, Bunting deftly forecast the dream-come-true scenario: individual rights affirmed, originalist and accomplished hunter Antonin Scalia presenting the majority opinion.

Bull's-eye. Twice. Militia, schmilitia. "Most people were walking around with a knot in their stomach," Bunting says. "Not me. Frankly, I don't know how that decision another 5-4 split didn't come back 9-0."

Oh, go oil your muzzle-loader, says Hayhoe, the notorious gun-control activist from Wesley Chapel. On the strength of conversations with gun-law attorneys familiar with the decision, Hayhoe summarized: So, individuals can own firearms. Yawn. Tell us something we didn't know.

Sounds like whistling past the deed-restricted-community armory to us, but listen up:

Defending Mr. Madison's Genius

By winning, Hayhoe argues, the gun-rights crowd (chiefly the legislation-hawking, attorney-hiring National Rifle Association) lost. Gone is the slippery-slope argument, that any court-affirmed law restraining gun possession nudges us down a steepening grade whose inevitable bottom is an outright ban.

"Sure the NRA is popping corks," Hayhoe said. "They think they got the whole enchilada." Indeed they do, with endless chips and salsa to boot. "They think they've conquered Everest. We don't think it's quite that simple."

Hayhoe's side sees sampler platters and foothills - gray areas fertile with opportunity. Meanwhile, Bunting envisions a ban on bans and nationwide reciprocity on state-issued, concealed-carry permits.

Bizarrely, in this case, Pasco's yin and yang of gun possession share an opinion: Thursday heard the starter pistol on an extended era of full employment for attorneys on both extremes of the gun-control argument.

Still, for all Hayhoe's well-spun bravado, one has to like the position and the momentum switch accorded his opponents. The NRA may have seen its tradition-rich last-ditch appeal sacrificed, but the reward delights: tasting how the burden has shifted, big-time, onto those who favor limitations on one of Mr. Madison's fundamental guarantees.

Sweet.

Tom Jackson can be reached at (813) 948-4219.

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