Chicago Mayor Daley actually has a point.

The impression coming out of Tuesday’s SCOTUS McDonald hearing is that the US 2A applies to the states. Of course we won’t know SCOTUS’s decision for months, but that’s the impression. Of course, Chicago is directly impacted by this, and Mayor Daley, while not handling the potential loss all that well, actually makes a sound point:

Still, Mayor Daley isn’t giving an inch. In fact, he’s ridiculing the high court for affirming the Second Amendment right to bear arms while sitting in a protective bubble.

“Why can’t I go to the Supreme Court and sit there with a gun and listen to the arguments? If a gun is so important to us on the street or someone’s home, why can’t I go to the Supreme Court and sit there with a gun? I’m not gonna shoot anyone. But, I have a right to that gun,” Daley said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

“Why can’t I go see my congressman who doesn’t believe in gun laws? Why can’t I carry my gun into congressmen’s offices or go to his home and knock on his door and say, ‘Don’t be worried. I have a gun. You want me to have a gun.’ Why is it they want to be protected by all the federal money … to protect all the federal bureaucrats, but when it comes to us in the city” there’s no protection?

He is quite right. Why can’t law-abiding citizens carry into courtrooms? Why can’t law-abiding citizens carry onto Federal property? Why is there some sort of exclusivity for some and not others?  Granted, Daley doesn’t totally get it because he frames this as if law-abiding folks are suddenly going to turn bloodthirsty. But the general point is sound.

Of course, this is what people are wondering the most about what SCOTUS will say. While it seems a lock that 2A will end up being incorporated, the big question is how and to what extent. That is, could SCOTUS say “yes it applies, but the states are free to decide just how far it applies”. Think about how Heller expressly didn’t address notions of “reasonable restrictions” (whatever that is).

“When a child gets shot or killed, that is a failure of society. Adults should stand up and say, guns don’t solve things in homes or streets. If it was, then everyone here would be carrying a gun in our own corporations.” [said Daley]

Yes yes…. glad to see someone is thinking of the children. And guns don’t solve things? While certainly they aren’t the answer to every problem, they sure do solve some of them. There are decades of data supporting that.

Right now, we just have to wait and see what SCOTUS will say.