Evidence-Free Hackery: Another Highly Respected
'Expert' On the Alleged Conflict of Guns and Public Safety

Oh look…a Robert Spitzer op-ed. Let's take a look and see what kind of brilliant insights this very respected expert has for us. He is, after all, an academic that antigun courts take super-seriously. The article's headline itself — What Happens When the Second Amendment Collides With Public Safety? — is based on a false premise. The reality is, the Second Amendment right to carry need not ever collide with "public safety."

Especially in the context of the Pretti shooting, Spitzer seems to implicitly accept the argument made by some administration officials (and Trump himself) that the mere act of carrying at a protest means you are asking to be shot by police.

This fraught political moment has thus found the Trump administration in the uncomfortable position of taking criticism from both liberals who blame heavy-handed federal agent tactics and conservatives who bristle at the administration's seeming abandonment of public gun carry rights.

On the one hand, civilian gun carry is indeed a right under the Second Amendment according to the Supreme Court's 2022 decision in the Bruen case where the high court said that individuals have a "right to carry a handgun for self-defense outside the home." The court proposed no exception for doing so in a public gathering.

Spitzer says carry is indeed a right "according to the Supreme Court." Interesting. I thought it was because the plain text of the Second Amendment says we have a right to bear arms …