Times News article

[joe15003]

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http://timesonline.com/articles/2008...2664045745.txt

Gun decision to have little impact on Pennsylvania
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By Bob Bauder, Times Staff
Published: Thursday, June 26, 2008 9:54 PM EDT
A U.S. Supreme Court decision on Thursday, striking down a Washington, D.C., handgun ban and potentially triggering a ripple effect of litigation across the nation, drew mixed reviews from local law enforcement officials and a constitutional law expert.

The court ruled that under the Second Amendment Americans have a right to possess guns for self-defense in their homes. It was the first time in U.S. history that justices offered a conclusive interpretation of the so-called right to bear arms.

Justice Antonin Scalia wrote in the majority opinion that prohibitions against felons and the mentally ill possessing guns and other restrictions remained intact.

Beaver County District Attorney Anthony Berosh said he doubts that the ruling will have much of an effect in Pennsylvania, where residents have always been permitted to own and possess guns in their homes without a permit. Pennsylvania requires permits only for concealed weapons.

Berosh noted that the ruling was confined specifically to gun possession in a citizen’s home.

“In essence, I don’t think it has any effect on Pennsylvania gun restrictions at all,” he said.

However, he noted that the ruling is open to interpretation by the courts.

And that is where problems will arise, according to Bruce Ledewitz, a professor and constitutional law expert at the Duquesne University School of Law. He predicted that the ruling would have a wide-ranging impact across the country.

“Justice Scalia has just made the federal courts the arbiter of gun laws in every state in the union,” he said. “Now there will be Second Amendment challenges to gun law violations in every state. The Supreme Court has ushered in a new realm of law.”

Ledewitz said the court attempted to narrow the ruling with language addressing existing gun restrictions, “but that’s going to end up being litigated.”

He said if he were representing a convicted felon, he would argue that his client, under the court’s ruling, has as much right as anyone else to have a gun in his home.

“How can just being a felon cause me to give up my right to protect my own life in my own house?” Ledewitz said.

Aliquippa Police Chief Ralph Palante, who has seen his share of gun violence, said he doubted if the ruling would impact crime.

Bottom line, he said, is crooks are going to get guns, ban or no ban.

“This was for law-abiding people who wanted some protection in their homes,” he said. “I don’t think any law is going to affect anyone getting a gun. Let’s be realistic. I don’t think that down in D.C. the bad guys were really worrying about that ban.”

[huntingbeaver]

as usual, the times liberal left leaning spin has been applied. Some of the things that are printed by that paper anger me -- never met a tax or cause they don't like.