Can the Parker Finding be Good for the GOP?

George Will discusses the recent history around the gun control debate and how the Parker decision may be a political boost for the GOP in coming elections.

Increasingly, however, some constitutional scholars and judicial rulings argue that several restraints the Bill of Rights puts on government can be disregarded if the worthiness -- as academics or judges assess that -- of government's purposes justifies ignoring those restraints. Erwin Chemerinsky, professor of law and political science at Duke University, argued in The Post last week that even if the Second Amendment is construed as creating an individual right to gun ownership, the D.C. law should still be constitutional because the city had a defensible intent (reducing violence) when it annihilated that right.

Sound familiar? Defenders of the McCain-Feingold law, which restricts the amount, timing and content of political campaign speech, say: Yes, yes, the First Amendment says there shall be "no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech." But that proscription can be disregarded because the legislators' (professed) intent -- to prevent the "appearance" of corruption and to elevate political discourse -- is admirable.

If the Supreme Court reverses the appeals court's ruling and upholds the D.C. gun law, states and localities will be empowered to treat the Second Amendment as the D.C. law does: as a nullity. This will bring the gun control issue -- and millions of gun owners -- back to a roiling boil. That is not in the interest of the Democratic Party, which is supported by most ardent supporters of gun control.

You'd think that D.C.'s law is proof positive that the gun control legislation didn't work. Seeing that they have one of the highest gun crime rates in the country, the prohibition appears to be more of a hindrance to safety than otherwise.

The only problem I see with the argument is that there isn't any GOP presidential candidate that has enough popularity and a good rating on the topic. McCain is a certainty to restrict rights even more as he has with political speech. Romney enacted legislation in Massachusetts that limited access to guns at a completely new level. And El Duce (Giuliani) is pro-gun control.

Parker may have made the topic of gun control more prevalent in the debate, but it will not aide the presidential campaign. The campaigns for the congress on the other hand may see some assistance.