Lock and Load

Is it acceptable that 30,000 Americans are killed by guns every year — in the home, on the job, walking to school, at the shopping mall? The Supreme Court on Thursday all but ensured that more Americans will die. Furthermore, annually over 700,000 violent crimes involve handguns.

The Court declared that the Second Amendment guarantees individuals the right to bear arms for nonmilitary uses, even though the amendment clearly links the right to service in a "militia."

This is a decision that will cost innocent lives, cause daily pain and suffering and increase the costs of law enforcement. For example, as the court was getting ready to release its decision, a worker in a Kentucky plastics plant shot his supervisor, four co-workers and himself to death.

Constitutional rights are not absolute. The First Amendment guarantees free speech, but that does not mean that laws cannot prohibit some spoken words, like threats to commit imminent violent acts. The rights gun owners have to own guns should be balanced against public-safety interests.

This harmful decision, which hands the far right a victory, is a reminder of why voters need to have the Supreme Court firmly in mind when they vote for the president this fall.