The Supreme Court moved the Second Amendment to the forefront of the presidential campaign with a ruling upholding the right of individuals to own guns.
Tuesday’s decision gave John McCain’s campaign the chance to label Barack Obama soft on gun rights and eager to stack the high court with anti-gun justices.
Obama, whose hometown of Chicago’s own gun ban is already under fire, walked a fine line after the ruling was issued, saying he supported the decision but also the need to “keep our communities and our children safe.”
McCain wasted no time praising the Supreme Court’s 5-4 ruling Thursday, which struck down the District of Columbia’s 32-year-old ban on owning handguns.
McCain declared the ruling “a landmark victory” for the Second Amendment and resurrected an embarrassing moment for Obama on the issue of guns.
“Unlike the elitist view that believes Americans cling to guns out of bitterness,” McCain said, paraphrasing a line used by Obama at an April fundraiser in San Francisco to describe small-town voters, “today’s ruling recognizes that gun ownership is a fundamental right — sacred, just as the right to free speech and assembly.”
McCain has had his own problems with gun-rights groups like the National Rifle Association over his support for background checks at gun shows. But McCain is much more closely aligned with the NRA than Obama, who once signed a questionnaire supporting the elimination of handguns but later said it was an error made by campaign aides.
Obama said Thursday that the Supreme Court backs his view that the right of individuals to bear arms should be protected, but that the right is “not absolute” and leaves in place “reasonable regulations enacted by local communities to keep our streets safe.”
Obama did not indicate whether he will continue to back Chicago’s 26-year-old ban on handguns, which is threatened by Thursday’s ruling. However, in his statement, Obama suggested he thought it was effective, saying: “what works in Chicago may not work in Cheyenne.”
The NRA filed suit to overturn the Chicago ban just hours after the high court ruled on the D.C. case.
Constitutional expert Ted Frank of the American Enterprise Institute believes the ruling will weigh heavily on the minds of some voters in November.
“The most restrictive anti-gun laws that affect law-abiding citizens are going to face constitutional scrutiny where in the past they have not, ” Frank said. “And the NRA can now point to the presidential election and say your Second Amendment rights are just one justice from being taken away. Gun control people can make the opposite argument.”
