LEE BRIGHT---CONSTITUTIONAL SCHOLAR

From suggesting that South Carolina should coin its own currency to proposing a bill that would create a high school course on how to use firearms, Lee Bright's efforts to reinforce the stereotype of South Carolina as a societal and cultural backwater seem never-ending.

Splashed across the national news today is a full account of Sen. Bright's appearance on Fox News Radio's "The Alan Colmes Show" this past Friday---an appearance during which Sen. Bright established his bona fides as a "constitutional scholar" by suggesting that South Carolina teachers should be able to actually carry machine guns on school grounds.

Asked about the legality of teachers packing such high-powered hardware, Sen. Bright opined that "The Second Amendment is pretty clear.  It says the right to carry arms should not be infringed."

Mr. Colmes---not the brightest bulb in the hall---then asked, "So you should be able to carry any gun you want?"  To which our GOP/Tea Party genius who is making a run for one of the U.S. Senate seats from my home state replied, "Well, I don't see how the government can regulate it."

Whaaaaat?

One wishes he was just joking.

He wasn't.

Apparently Sen. Bright hasn't bothered to read or, more likely, is simply ignorant of the opinion written by Justice Scalia per the Supreme Court's decision in District of Columbia v. Heller (2008).  Though the majority---wrongly, I think---held that the Second Amendment supports the rights of individuals to carry firearms, it also---rightly, I think, in the context of the overall opinion---limited those rights per particular circumstances:  "...nothing in our opinion should be taken to cast doubt on longstanding prohibitions on the possession of firearms...in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings..."  Furthermore, the ruling in Heller established that the government can most certainly limit possession/ownership of "dangerous and unusual" weapons that are not in "common use."

In other words, my neighbor cannot set up either his howitzer or his .50 caliber machine gun on his front porch and aim it in my direction---I am, in his opinion, nothing more than "another run-of-the-mill commie," but he gives me a pass because I occasionally route Gamecock football tickets his way (which calls into question just how serious he is about his politics!).  In fact, like teachers, he cannot legally possess either the howitzer or the machine gun.  And, like teachers, he cannot legally tote that .50 cal on the grounds of a school.

So, would someone please tell Sen. Bright that "the right to bear arms" is absolutely not absolute and that the government's right to regulate what weapons one can or cannot possess has been affirmed by the Supreme Court as absolutely absolute.

And somebody get the man a copy of the Constitution.