Helping my son with his Boy Scout Citizen of the Nation merit badge last week reminded me of the importance of the second amendment of the Constitution which says …. “the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.” As citizens of this country it is a good idea to read the Constitution every year to keep our rights fresh in our minds.

With the recent Supreme Court ruling that says the banning of handguns in Washington D.C. (and now in Chicago) is unconstitutional, other banned gun laws are popping up for review. Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., who wrote the opinion for the court’s dominant conservatives, said: “It is clear that the Framers . . . counted the right to keep and bear arms among those fundamental rights necessary to our system of ordered liberty.”

The decision of overturning the ban of handguns extended the court’s 2008 ruling in District of Columbia v. Heller was a great boost for a private citizen to keep their own guns for protection. As Justice Alito says, “the Second Amendment protects a personal right to keep and bear arms for lawful purposes, most notably for self-defense within the home.” That decision applied only to federal laws and federal enclaves such as Washington and it was the first time the court had said there was an individual right to gun ownership rather than one related to military service. For the common citizen, that decision is big.

Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms sees this as a wave of what is to come. Chairman Alan Gottlieb says, “Today, we are witnessing a new revolution in which America is rejecting the demagoguery of gun banners like Chicago Mayor Richard Daley. Court rulings and the Constitution are on our side. We will keep fighting until firearms freedom is fully restored and liberty is secured.”

We all have the right to protect ourselves and we all know if unconstitutional laws state we shouldn’t have guns there will still be those crime-minded people that will figure out a way to get them illegally. Those law abiding citizens will be out of luck and unprotected.

The Second Amendment is one of our most cherished. The right to keep and bear arms is what keeps government subservient to its citizenry. Without the right to bear arms, we would have anarchy in the streets, the criminals would still have guns, and violent crime would escalate. This amendment will forever be debated and law abiding citizens need to stay on their toes to keep any bans from inhibiting our constitutional laws from serving us as a nation.

Loxley resident Valerie J. Steimle is the author of three books, “Home Is Where The Heart Is, Home Is Where The Learning Is: Homeschool Lifestyles from Home school Moms” and her newest book, “Of One Heart: Being Single in the LDS World” all available on Amazon.com. Contact her at valeriesteimle@yahoo.com or visit her website at www.strengthenourhome.com.