Senate Bill 184 will have a third hearing next week. The bill has been added to the Senate Judiciary on Criminal Justice Committee's agenda for January 30 at 10:00 a.m. in Senate Building, North Hearing Room.

This legislation would restore the right of individuals to respond in force in defense of their lives and family without fear of civil lawsuits by criminals.

By Alan Gottlieb and Dave Workman
Special to the Fort Worth (TX) Star-Telegram

Martin Luther King Jr. put it best: "A right delayed is a right denied."

The lesson appears to have been lost on the Department of Justice and Solicitor General Paul D. Clement in the amicus curiae brief submitted recently for the government in the case of District of Columbia v. Heller, which challenges the city's 31-year-old handgun ban, a horrible gun law that has had its day in court and lost.

In a transparent exercise of political pandering, Clement and his colleagues named on the brief have strenuously, and correctly, argued that the Second Amendment protects an individual civil right, yet they insist that every restrictive gun law currently on the books should stand.

They want this case sent back to the lower courts for further consideration. Translation: Legal sleight of hand is being used to make the Second Amendment a right "in name only." And Clement appears to suggest that the longer the Supreme Court can put off deciding whether a restrictive gun law violates that important civil right, the better.

It is gratifying that the government properly holds the Second Amendment to be protective of an individual right, but that gratification is greatly diminished by the argument that this case requires further review. That would be a great injustice, and as King once noted, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."