Newsweek: Gun-banning Mayor 'Weighs Options' Post-Heller Ruling

The ink was hardly dry on the June 26 ruling overturning Washington, D.C.'s handgun ban when Newsweek started the hand-wringing about how the city's political establishment would react.

Rather than profiling D.C. resident Dick Heller, the victor in the lawsuit, or officials from gun rights groups on their next move in challenging other gun bans with yesterday's precedent, Newsweek sought to press D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty (D) on how he can blunt the scope of the Heller decision.

The teaser headline and caption from the Web page read:

"D.C.'s Dilemma: Washington's mayor weighs options after gun ban overturned."

That's right, the high court ruled that a near-total gun ban is a blatant violation of an individual's right to keep and bear arms as guaranteed by the Second Amendment. Given the mainstream media's history of vigorously defending its freedoms of speech and press from any abridgement or "common sense" restriction, you'd think consistency would compel a little bit of a slant or a tip of the hat to the court upholding the plain language of another article in the Bill of Rights.

Nah, who am I kidding?! This is Newsweek after all.

To writer Daniel Stone's credit, he does ask some good questions that raise conservative arguments on the impracticality and counterproductivity of the D.C. gun ban. Yet there were no questions posed which were predicated on the constitutional and personal liberty issues at play, nor were any questions worded in a manner that put Fenty on the defensive for having supported a law that denied his city's people one of their cherished civil liberties.

Below are the agenda of questions, for the full story by Stone, click here:

• Where were you when you heard? What was your reaction?
• What kinds of regulations [will you draft to conform to the ruling]?
• Cities like Chicago and Boston, which both have strict gun laws, will be looking toward your administration to see how you handle this. What else will you do?
• You said earlier there was near-unanimous disappointment among the District's 600,000 residents. Does this ruling mean that D.C. will be less safe?
• Critics of the ban say that it was never really effective, that the number of homicides and gun-related crimes actually went up since the ban was instituted in 1976.
• Is there validity to the point that residents will be safer with the ban lifted?
• What about the argument that it'll be easier to defend yourself if you have a gun in your home?
• What does this mean for your job? Do you see this as an added challenge?
• The people who aren't supposed to have the guns likely already do, regardless of whether it's legal. Is it possible to draft regulations targeting criminals specifically? Or do you think you'll draft the new policies more broadly to affect everyone?

*I noticed the story in the lineup late last night and it was still there at 10:00 a.m. EDT today when I made the above screen capture.