“Guns Don’t Kill People, Aliens Do”

I’m wondering if this line will pop up in the wake of the Virginia Tech massacre. The shooter, Cho Seung-Hui, was a permanent resident alien. I don’t know if the National Rifle Association conceives its mission to include the rights of noncitizens to bear arms (a little tricky given the Second Amendment’s use of “the People”), or whether they might see in the citizen/noncitizen line the possibility of a strategic retreat to a more defensible perimeter in the wake of this disaster.

If the latter, I wouldn’t be suprised if there are moves in Congress to restrict non-citizen gun ownership. Here’s a rundown of existing federal and state laws relating to gun ownership and possession by noncitizens (the accuracy of which I can’t vouch for). Although state laws discriminating against aliens for such purposes were historically quite common, I think, see Patsone v. Pennsylvania, 232 U.S. 138 (1914) (upholding state law prohibiting possession of firearms by aliens), they may now run afoul of Sugarman v. Dougal, 413 U.S. 634 (1973), and its progeny (subjecting state discrimination against aliens to heightened scrutiny except where “political functions” are implicated). That of course wouldn’t stop the federal government from undertaking further restrictions on the possession of firearms by noncitizens.

While I’m all for gun control, singling out noncitizens probably isn’t the right way to pursue it.