D.C. citizens have privileges, not rights

Regarding Larry Simoneaux’s Feb. 25 column, “Protecting those we love is a responsibility and a right”:

In the second paragraph he states, “Next month, the U.S. Supreme Court is going to take a look at the District of Columbia’s ban on handgun ownership. The argument at hand is basically, as it has been for years, whether the Second Amendment’s guarantee to ‘keep and bear arms’ is an individual or a collective right.”

Framing the argument like that is way off the mark and mixes up the law. When you study the U.S. Constitution, you will discover that the District of Columbia is federal, not a state, and therefore its citizens have “privileges,” not “rights.” The Bill of Rights was a guarantee written by our founding fathers for citizens of the “Several States.” Thus D.C. has no standing to raise any issue on the Bill of Rights, nor can such a ruling ever apply to state citizens. Any attempt to do so will constitute a fraud on the American people.

Dennis Crocker

Marysville