It’s certainly true that courts love to butt in where they don’t belong, but I have to disagree that the Second Amendment is one of those cases: Unlike abortion, the exclusionary rule, or Miranda rights, the right to bear arms is actually in the Constitution. The Bill of Rights is a limit on government, and since Marbury v. Madison the courts have been charged with enforcing that limit through judicial review. Though the process has frequently been abused — and certainly, tests and levels of scrutiny are far from perfect — it’s a crucial part of our system of checks and balances.

Also, it’s not at all clear that “the friends of keeping and bearing arms have, nearly always and everywhere, looked after themselves just fine.” In the city at the heart of the current case, Washington, D.C., the government has completely banned handguns and required that long guns be stored in non-functioning states. Chicago and many of its suburbs also ban handguns. In New York, it’s nearly impossible for an everyday person to get a permit. Granted, most states allow concealed carry through legislation, but these are three of the nation’s greatest population centers, and the Second Amendment is basically meaningless in them.