Valley enforcers: Gun ruling on target

Thursday’s decision was the justices’ first major ruling on gun control in U.S. history.

STAFF/WIRE REPORT

YOUNGSTOWN — There’s support from a sampling of Mahoning and Shenango Valley police officials for the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that Americans have a constitutional right to keep guns in their homes for self-defense.

Columbiana Police Chief John Krawchyk called bans on guns, such as those which brought the case to the Supreme Court, “ridiculous,” sharing his satisfaction with the ruling.

“Homeowners should have a right,” said Krawchyk. “We wouldn’t be a free country without guns.”

The court’s 5-4 ruling Thursday struck down the District of Columbia’s 32-year-old ban on handguns as incompatible with gun rights under the Second Amendment — the justices’ first major pronouncement on gun control in U.S. history.

The Second Amendment reads: “A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.”

The Constitution does not permit “the absolute prohibition of handguns held and used for self-defense in the home,” said Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for the majority.

Mike Menster, police chief in Sharon, Pa., said he personally supports the right to gun ownership outside his duty to protect the laws that govern them.

“There’s nothing wrong with responsible gun ownership at all,” said Menster. “Most of the guns we encounter on the street are stolen.”

The court’s opinion dealt almost exclusively with self-defense in the home because the Washington law at issue, like many gun control laws around the country, concerns heavily populated areas.

“Most of the people who have guns in their homes have never seen a problem. It’s when guns leave the home that we have problems,” said Chief Robert Gavalier of the Austintown Police Department.

In a dissent to the ruling, Justice Stephen Breyer said, “In my view, there simply is no untouchable constitutional right guaranteed by the Second Amendment to keep loaded handguns in the house in crime-ridden urban areas.”

Some local law enforcement would argue otherwise.

“Guns don’t hurt people. People hurt people,” Krawchyk said. “A gun doesn’t shoot anyone just sitting there.”

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., a leading gun control advocate in Congress, criticized the ruling. “I believe the people of this great country will be less safe because of it,” she said.

Ohio’s laws on gun ownership, known as concealed carry laws, allow owners to travel in public with their weapons in most areas outside school and government property. Many police officials are satisfied with the laws in place, calling them effective without infringing on owner rights.

“With the concealed weapons statute, we have had very little problems. Our law abiding citizens take the courses and follow the law,” said Capt. Kenneth Centorame of the Youngstown Police Department.

Ohio Gov, Ted Strickland, in a statement, said, “I concur with today’s landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, which emphasizes what so many have long understood: The right to bear arms is a fundamental civil right like the freedoms of speech and to vote. And it’s important that governments at all levels not infringe on those fundamental rights.”

Mahoning County Sheriff Randall Wellington expressed satisfaction with the Ohio gun laws. He also agreed Ohio’s concealed carry laws are working well.

In comparison, the District’s gun laws are among the nation’s strictest, barring citizens from owning handguns unless they had one prior to the 1976 law that forbade them. Shotguns and rifles were allowed to be kept as long as they were unloaded and either disassembled or locked.

Dick Anthony Heller, 66, an armed security guard, sued the District after it rejected his application to keep a handgun at his Capitol Hill home a short distance from the Supreme Court.

“I’m thrilled I am now able to defend myself and my household in my home,” Heller said shortly after the opinion was announced.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled in Heller’s favor and struck down Washington’s handgun ban, saying the Constitution guarantees Americans the right to own guns and that a total prohibition on handguns is not compatible with that right.

Scalia said nothing in Thursday’s ruling should “cast doubt on long-standing prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons or the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings.”

Forty-four state constitutions contain some form of gun rights, which are not affected by the court’s consideration of Washington’s restrictions.

“It’s a constitutional right [and] I’m all for it,” said Trumbull County Sheriff Thomas Altiere. “It’s a right that our forefathers fought for.”