Now we don’t have to worry about defending ourselves against the stereotype of the anti-gun liberal. It was never true anyway, but now it doesn’t matter. Thank goodness that’s over! Whew. Now we just have to say, “hey, even if we wanted to, we can’t. End of discussion.” The point is moot.

It’s not an unreasonable notion and, in fact, I’ve predicted the same thing regarding abortion (I’m betting that if Roe v Wade were to be overturned, the Republicans would lose a quarter of their voters, those who only actually make it to the polls to vote “pro-life” in the first place, overnight). But, in this instance, I don’t really think it’ll make that big of a difference. The reason is that, if you listen to them long enough, you’ll see that when gun use advocates say “they’re gonna take away our guns!!!” they aren’t referring (exclusively) to outright bans on gun ownership, but rather to any regulation of gun sales and ownership whatsoever. Waiting periods, “fixing the gun show loop hole,” prohibitions on felon gun ownership, allowing guns to be prohibited on private property, etc. is all included in “taking away our guns.” The SCOTUS decision doesn’t necessarily do anything about any of those things. It leaves plenty of room for such regulations and restrictions.

While (as I said above) I’m content to let others argue for where the line of such regulations should fall, it’s unlikely that such regulations (or the potential for them) will ever cease to exist, and so “they’re going to take away our guns” will always be a campaign issue. The regulations will always exist because ALL our rights are subject to some degree of regulation. Think you have free speech? Try yelling “FIRE” in a crowded theater. Freedom of religion? Ask a fundamentalist Mormon if the government allows them to take as many wives as they’re religion commands. It seems a bit ridiculous to suggest that the 2nd Amendment deserves some total deference that isn’t extended to the rest of the Bill of Rights, and that ridiculousness becomes outright hypocrisy if you happen to also vocally support even unreasonable regulation of other rights (how many gun use advocates out there also feel we should suppress free speech with flag-burning laws?). So until such time as we devolve into total anarchy (at which point the 2nd Amendment really won’t be in effect anyhow), there will continue to be some kind of regulation of gun sales, ownership, and use. And so long as such regulations (or the potential for them) are in place, guns will continue to be an issue in American politics.