Ohio Governor Concurs with Supreme’s Decision that Gun Ownership a Fundamental Right – Like Freedom of Speech and Voting

Strickland Calls on Governments to Not Infringe on Right to Bear Arms

OhioNewsBureau

COLUMBUS, OHIO: In response to Thursday’s split decision by the US Supreme Court that upheld the long-standing belief among many that the Second Amendment protects an individual's right to own a gun, Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, an advocate of gun rights who gained the support of the National Rifle Association in his successful run for Ohio's chief executive in 2006, issued a short statement concurring with the ruling.

“I concur with today’s landmark decision by the US Supreme Court, which emphasizes what so many have long understood: The right to bear arms is a fundamental civil right like the freedoms of speech and to vote. And it's important that governments at all levels not infringe on those fundamental rights,” read a statement sent to the OhioNewsBureau by the governor’s chief spokesman.

As an Ohio Congressman representing the 6th District, Strickland said gun control laws are too strict and voted to protect gunmakers and sellers for being sued for gun misuse. He has been rated “A” by the NRA, America’s major defender of Second Amendment rights.

The high court’s ruling today, the first time in 70 years that it had to deal with the meaning of the Second Amendment, overturned the District of Columbia ban on handguns, widely believed to be the strictest gun-control law in the nation. The ruling, according to this article, may signal a new round of lawsuits related to run rights.

Writing for the court’s 5-4 majority, Justice Antonin Scalia, one of the court’s most conservative judges, said the “enshrinement of constitutional rights necessarily takes certain policy choices off the table,” further noting that “it is not the role of this court to pronounce the Second Amendment extinct.” Scalia said he and other justices “take seriously” the problem of handgun violence. Justices John G. Roberts Jr., Anthony M. Kennedy, Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr. joined Scalia in the majority.

In his dissent, Justice Stevens, who was joined by David H. Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer, said Scalia’s decision was based on “a strained and unpersuasive reading” of the text and history of the Second Amendment.

John Murphy, executive director of the Ohio Prosecutor’s Association, declined to comment on the ruling, but said the association has in the past opposed an Ohio law that allowed individuals who applied for and received a license to carry a concealed weapon because the group didn’t want more private citizens carrying concealed guns off their own property. He said the reasoning was that it would lead to more serious violence.

In a failed attempt to prohibit a state law from passing that allows a home owner or someone in a vehicle from shooting an intruder without fear of being prosecuted for a crime should the act end in killing the intruder, Murphy said the bill, known as the Defense of Castle Act, now allows a driver to keep a gun and a box of ammunition together on the passenger seat, something that wasn’t possible before. He also said that it is not a violation of Ohio law to walk down the street with a gun in a hoslter, just as long as it wasn’t loaded.

Strickland signed the Defense of Castle Bill.

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