An October 26 The Oklahoman editorial warns readers that Hillary Clinton has the Second Amendment in her “cross hairs,” and she is going after it if elected to the White House.
The editorial begins: “If there were any doubts as to what Hillary Clinton would like to see the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution look like eventually, they were clarified during the final presidential debate. It’s not pretty.” It then continues by pointing to statements Clinton made while opposite Donald Trump during the October 19 debate.
Those statements include her claim that she was “upset” with the ruling in District of Columbia v Heller (2008) because it endangered toddlers. But The Oklahoman countered, showing that Heller was not targeting laws that protect children but laws which effectively bar law-abiding citizens from having handguns in their homes for self-defense. And as for the long guns that were allowed when handguns were not, the draconian law required rifles and shotguns to be kept “unloaded, with a trigger lock in place or with the gun disassembled at all times — essentially useless.”
The Oklahoman quoted constitutional law attorney Curt Levy, who pointed out that the four dissenting justices in Heller “didn’t lean on the argument that the law was about saving kids.” Rather, out of approximately 800 words, those justices “included only a brief reference to ‘children under the age of 14,’”
Again — Heller was not about endangering toddlers but removing restrictions so law-abiding citizens could defend themselves. And The Oklahoman warns that, given the chance, Clinton will try to add a fifth justice to the four dissenting ones for the purposes of “overruling Heller.”
Clinton’s statements are not lost on political spectators overseas. The Guardian reports that gun owners in America fear Clinton supports opening the door to city-by-city handgun bans again. And this would be accomplished by actions that begin at the Supreme Court and trickle down.
Donald Trump is the key to avoiding this scenario. The Oklahoman made this clear, stressing Trump’s pledge that he will choose justices who “will not do damage to the Second Amendment.”
AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of “Bullets with AWR Hawkins,” a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.