COMMENTARY | A recent article in the Daily Caller sheds light on Barack Obama’s viewpoint of our Second Amendment rights. According to Rush Limbaugh, Michelle Obama’s statement at a recent fund-raiser in Providence, R.I., hints that if Obama is re-elected, our right to possession of firearms could be jeopardized.
In a recent decision (District of Columbia V. Heller) the Supreme Court narrowly upheld our right to bear arms by a 5-4 ruling. Most conservatives believe the reason this decision was so close is due to the fact that Obama has appointed two liberal justices, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. They replaced Sandra Day O’Conner and David Souter, both of whom were appointed by Republican presidents.
The appointment of one more liberal judge to the court could shift the current conservative majority to a more liberal point of view if a conservative justice were replaced. With the aging Ruth Bader Ginsburg suffering from pancreatic cancer, the opportunity for Obama to appoint at least one new Supreme Court justice is a strong possibility. While the balance of the court would not be swayed if she were to be replaced by another liberal judge, several of the more conservative justices are reaching the age where the possibility of vacancy could occur.
In the past, Obama has made his gun control policy public by voting twice as a senator in favor of stricter regulations. In 2003 the senator favored a bill that in Illinois that would have banned shotguns, and black powder rifles. In 2004 he voted against an act that would protect homeowners from prosecution in cases of self-defense on their own property. Prior to being in public office, Obama was on the board of an organization called (the anti-gun Joyce Foundation), currently known as the Joyce Foundation.
The fear of conservatives is that another term for Obama would give sufficient time for the scales of justice to sway more toward the left. It is expected that a noticeable shift in rights and laws would occur under a more liberal Supreme Court. The fate of many issues, close to the conservative heart would come under scrutiny in a liberal legal system, including the fate of national healthcare.