Slate magazine claimed Feb. 16 that the death of Justice Antonin Scalia makes the seminal gun-rights case District of Columbia v Heller into the new Roe v Wade.
Slate’s point is that conservatives will now cling to Heller–and fight tooth and nail for it—the way liberals cling to, and fight for, Wade.
According to Slate, liberals have not grasped this juxtaposition or how guns can be as important to the right as abortion is to the left.
Slate puts it this way:
This is what liberals don’t understand about gun control: The right to a firearm feels as fundamental to conservatives as the right to abortion feels to liberals. It’s the same pro-choice logic: I might not own a gun. I might not even expect to need one. But that’s my decision, not yours. I have a right to defend myself, and it’s none of the government’s business. Don’t like guns? Don’t buy one.
They then compare the way Cruz campaigned after the news of Scalia’s death versus the way Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) campaigned after the news. On Monday Cruz “spent more than 10 minutes talking about losing that seat on the court” and “he devoted two minutes just to Heller and guns.” Meanwhile, Rubio “spent barely one minute talking about the court” and he did not mention guns once.
Cruz said:
The four dissenters in Heller said the Second Amendment does not protect any individual right to keep and bear arms. One more liberal justice, and the Supreme Court will overrule Heller. … What that would mean is, the federal government or any state or local government could make it a crime for law-abiding citizens to possess a firearm.
AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.