Scalia Says Rocket Launchers Are Protected Under the Second Amendment

Last updated on February 8th, 2013 at 05:24 pm

In an opinion that is sure to delight potential terrorists everywhere, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia told Fox News Sunday that he believes all hand held weapons including rocket launchers are protected under the Second Amendment.

Here is the video:

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Transcript from Think Progress:

WALLACE: What about… a weapon that can fire a hundred shots in a minute?

SCALIA: We’ll see. Obviously the Amendment does not apply to arms that cannot be hand-carried — it’s to keep and “bear,” so it doesn’t apply to cannons — but I suppose here are hand-held rocket launchers that can bring down airplanes, that will have to be decided.

WALLACE: How do you decide that if you’re a textualist?

SCALIA: Very carefully.

Even more chilling than rocket launchers is that Scalia’s theoretical idea of hand held would also cover a small nuclear device that could fit in a briefcase, or any other mass casualty inflicting weapon that a person could carry. The idea that a rocket launcher could be protected under the Second Amendment is a very extreme view of the Founders’ intentions.

Conservatives have gone from a advocating a position of protecting the right to keep and bear arms to believing that nearly every weapon imaginable can and should be legally available to all Americans. I wonder how the NRA will defend the necessity of rocket launchers for hunting or personal protection? I can’t wait to hear somebody suggest that the next American mass shooting could have been prevented if the victims would have had rocket launchers.

It was fitting that Scalia, who along with Clarence Thomas has shattered all pretense of political neutrality on the High Court, would make his remarks on Fox News Sunday. Here is a Supreme Court Justice appearing on a program produced by a partisan cable news network to advance a radical position that could arm and empower mass killers.

Antonin Scalia’s interpretation of the constitution is one of the reasons why any serious conversation about keeping weapons out of the hands of criminals is nearly impossible to have. How can the nation have a reasonable dialogue about the role of accessibility to weapons and ammo in episodes of mass violence if one side of the discussion believes that rocket launchers are protected under the Second Amendment?

Justice Scalia’s legal reasoning based on a highly politicized interpretation of the Second Amendment is the domestic terrorist and mass murderer’s best friend.

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association