It's a slow day at work, so I just read a little about the D.C. vs. Heller case that was just argued before the Supreme Court. Here's a George Washington Law blog prediction of the opinions.

Now I don't claim to be a legal scholar so I don't know the case law, but I can speak from the history perspective and I have no doubt that self defense was probably on alot of American's minds when the second ammendment was included in the Bill of Rights. America was a frontier nation, and the ability to protect person and property in the wild was a key feature of white patriarchy at the time. In a confrontation, I'm afraid early citizens would certainly embrace a shoot-first-call-the-malitia-later attitude, whatever George Mason and James Madison had in mind.

Still, times change and the test for what is reasonable is a moving target. I hope the Supreme Court can come to some decision that will respect individual rights without turning the clock back on the progress the city has made toward reigning in crime and violence.

You can read about the case here and read the breifs and transcript of the arguements here (scroll down).