Our protections in the Bill of Rights are not absolute.
The clergy has overwhelmingly accepted that public health takes precedence over physical presence at Easter mass and Passover seders.
Similarly, Justice Antonin Scalia recognized the limits on Second Amendment rights. In his majority opinion upholding an individual’s right to bear arms, he wrote, “Nothing in our opinion should be taken to cast doubt on longstanding prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings, or laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms.”
“The lawful commerce in firearms is constitutionally protected by the Second Amendment,” writes Lawrence G. Keane, an official of the National Shooting Sports Federation, in defense of allowing gun stores to remain open during the pandemic (“Second Amendment rights matter including in times of crisis,” April 7).
But, as Justice Scalia points out, there are limits to that right.
Delegate Samuel I. “Sandy” Rosenberg, Baltimore
The writer, a Democrat, represents District 41 (Baltimore) in the Maryland House of Delegates.
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