Happiness is Warm Guns for Everybody

OK. Just a few comments about the Supreme Court's ruling last week that the 2nd Amendment protects an individual's right to own a gun for self-defense.

• As a card-carrying liberal crazy, I'm against this interpretation. As clear as it seems to be to some people that the amendment plainly means everybody can have a gun, it's just as clear to me that the language has to do with members of the militia. I'm in good company: Supreme Court justices Breyer and Stevens agree with me. ;-)
  
• The decision was not unexpected. The vote was 5-4. I've been getting emails from a gun nut friend more or less gloating about the coming decision for several months. The solid four-guy block of conservative votes on the Court practically means that any victory for the good guys is by definition going to be thin. (I sincerely hope that if Obama wins the White House, he will quickly get to appoint two or three young justices to the Court so we can get around this.)
  
• I read somewhere, forget where, that Obama has sidled over to the popular view (pro-gun) on this issue since he's running for prez. He was on record the other way before. The same piece mentioned how this was not necessarily a bad thing since it took this issue away from the right for the campaign. OK. I'll buy that.
• I also read that gun control has not been shut off by this ruling. Basically, it says the Constitution allows everybody to have a gun for self-defense, unless there's a good reason for them not to. Like being a convicted criminal, a juvenile, or a certified nut case, to cite a few obvious examples. So maybe, looking on the bright side, this ruling will shut the fucking NRA up about this Second Amendment thing--you know their old standard line: that every single law about guns is about taking my gun away--and force them to start actually dealing with the issue of sensible gun control rather than foaming about what was always a red herring.