THE DAILY FUDD: E:17: "Heller, phasers, and Firefly: RKBA's unfortunate built-in planned obsolescence--sorta."
In the TDF Edition 15 list of thoughts and rants, I said the following: 3. Heller actually sets up "Firefly/Serenity Scenario" of private parties flying around in spaceships, but shooting at each other with revolvers, while government forces have directed-energy weapons. Try to figure out how that is, or wait for me to tell you when I'm not so tired. Now, to tell you: The Heller case held that arms "in common use" in the CIVILIAN realm are 2A-protected. This actually is inverted from the cases it cites as precedent, which held that arms in common MILITARY use were protected. That is, a standard military rifle might be covered, but a simple derringer might not be. Justice Antonin Scalia in writing the opinion knew that to get Anthony Kennedy's vote, he'd have to lowball the scope, though I personally am a bit shocked to find such a frankly altered use of the precedent. But it saved civilian RKBA, so we'll just have to deal for now. The effect of this,...