Crunch Time May be Coming for Right to Arms for Personal Self-Defense, Warns Gun Law Expert

“The crunch time for the individual Second Amendment civil right of law-abiding American citizens to keep and bear arms for personal self-defense may be fast upon us,” gun rights expert John M. Snyder warned here todaySnyder noted that current significant factors in the continuing controversy are the forthcoming Supreme Court hearing in the case of District of Columbia v. Heller, this year’s presidential campaign, and ongoing attempts by gun-grabbing Members of Congress and state and local legislators to curtail the traditional American right to acquire and use personal firearms for defense of life, family and property.He pointed out that next month the high court is slated to hear arguments in the Heller case. The case revolves around the question of whether or not the virtual ban on private handgun acquisition and possession by citizens in the District of Columbia is a constitutional violation of the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms, as an appellate court already has ruled. “Does the Second Amendment contemplate an individual right, as we contend,” said Snyder, “or does it involve the inanity of a so-called ‘collective right’ – really a contradiction in terms, since the very concept of right involves the idea of something inhering in an individual as opposed to a collectivity.”Snyder noted that, while Second Amendment issues seem so far to have been on the back burner this year in the presidential campaign, that easily could change as voters focus more and more on the issue. “There are 80 million law-abiding gun owners in the United States,” Snyder noted. “Just think of what that means. There are tens of millions more gun owners in the United States than there will be voters for the successful presidential candidate in November.”He said also that congressional gun grabbers, such as a group of die-hard anti-gun Senators who recently introduced a bill, S. 2577, to undermine if not eliminate thousands of gun shows annually in the United States, “very well may be playing with fire because of the eventual negative reaction of millions of law-abiding American citizens to their statist attempts to eviscerate Americans’ rights.”Snyder emphasized that, “the United States is gun country. An ongoing USA Today internet survey reveals that of 650,000 participants, 97 percent indicate they believe the Second Amendment contemplates an individual right to keep and bear arms.”A former National Rifle Association magazine editor, Snyder is Public Affairs Director of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, PR Director of the National Association of Chiefs of Police, and Treasurer of the Second Amendment Foundation.