Economic Policy

No, you don’t have an absolute right to

own guns
All rights, including this one, have limits.

The Nation's Gun Show at the Dulles Expo Center in Chantilly, VA on Saturday, October
03, 2015. (Photo by Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
By Emily Badger
December 7, 2015
The "Second Amendment", more than a right, has recently become an easy
argument to use in debates. Do you want to regulate the sale of firearms, or limit
which kinds of firearms Americans can buy? “You have to respect the Second
Amendment!” is the most common answer you will hear. This
argument — frequently used by conservative people — suggests that the Second
Amendment establishes not just a right to own guns, but a right that the
government cannot legally limit. The problem with this argument: None of our
rights work this way.

"The Supreme Court has said repeatedly that no right is absolute," says Adam
Winkler, a law professor at UCLA. "In general, where the government has very
strong reasons to restrict a right, it can."

Take the First Amendment right to free speech, for example. In the most famous
example of what Winkler is talking about, the Supreme Court noted that the First
Amendment doesn't protect your right to shout "fire!" in a crowded theater that is
not, in fact, on fire. You can't say whatever you want, wherever you want –specially
if what you want to say might cause a riot or endanger public safety.
Also, about those free speech rights: You can't say false and malicious statements
about a person to damage their reputation, you can’t persuade someone to commit
murder, you can’t leak government secrets and you can’t say certain words on TV.
And that's just one of the rights contained in the First Amendment.

The Fourth Amendment says you have a right to be free from unreasonable
searches, but you still have to go through security at airports. "Same thing with
gun rights," Winkler says. "We already restrict access to firearms in many ways. We
prohibit people from owning shoulder-launched missiles and hand grenades. We
prohibit ex-convicts and the mentally ill from possessing firearms. We prevent
children from owning firearms."

The Second Amendment, in effect, is no more absolute than any of our other rights.
However, many people involved in our public debates often describe it that way.
"We see a lot more of this argument today than we did in the past," Winkler
says, "partly because we have over the last 40 years seen the rise of an extreme pro-
gun movement, led by the NRA (National Rifle Association)."

We can still argue about the prohibition of semiautomatic weapons, or about

universal background checks, and discuss if such policies would actually diminish
gun violence. But citing "the Second Amendment!" isn't a valid argument for
shutting the debate down.