Scalia Suggests ‘Hand-Held Rocket Launchers’ Are Protected Under Second Amendment

[deminks]

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/07/29/602491/scalia-rocket-launcher/

This morning on Fox News Sunday, Justice Antonin Scalia reiterated just how extremely his Constitutional originalism can be applied. Referring to the recent shooting in Aurora, CO, host Chris Wallace asked the Supreme Court Justice about gun control, and whether the Second Amendment allows for any limitations to gun rights. Scalia admitted there could be, such as “frighting” (carrying a big ax just to scare people), but they would still have to be determined with an 18th-Century perspective in mind. According to his originalism, if a weapon can be hand-held, though, it probably still falls under the right o “bear arms”:

WALLACE: What about… a weapon that can fire a hundred shots in a minute?

SCALIA: We’ll see. Obviously the Amendment does not apply to arms that cannot be hand-carried — it’s to keep and “bear,” so it doesn’t apply to cannons — but I suppose here are hand-held rocket launchers that can bring down airplanes, that will have to be decided.

WALLACE: How do you decide that if you’re a textualist?

SCALIA: Very carefully.

(end snip)

A SCOTUS judge/dog whistler on Faux Newz.

Gore won, Fat Tony. Get over it.

[MannyGoldstein]

1. Suitcase nukes

I want my suitcase nuke.

[TalkingDog]

3. +1

[2on2u]

2. Hand held, 1200 rounds a minute..... is that ok Scalia?

[TalkingDog]

4. WHACK. JOB.

n/t

[jerseyjack]

5. Why not? He obviously spends a lot of time playing with his own hand-held rocket.