Resident Fellow  David Frum

"You cannot address crime prevention without getting rid of assault weapons and handguns. I consider them a threat to national security, and I will go door to door if I have to, but I'm gonna convince Americans that I'm right, and I'm gonna get the guns."

That passionate outburst occurs at the climax of the 1995 movie, An American President. At that time, gun control was a liberal cause only slightly less sacred than environmentalism or affirmative action.

Learned law professors wrote articles explaining away the Second Amendment: "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed." The professors explained that those words did not safeguard the right to own guns. They safeguarded the right to join the National Guard.

So much for that! On Thursday, the Supreme Court held down an important ruling confirming that the Second Amendment means what it seems to mean: There exists an individual right to own guns. It can be limited in reasonable ways, just as the First Amendment to free speech can be limited. But it cannot be annihilated altogether.

And how have the bold liberals who once applauded the bold door-to-door promise of fictional president Andrew Shepherd responded?

Here is Senator Patrick Leahy, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Judiciary committee, the committee that confirms all nominees to the Supreme Court:

"In its decision in District of Columbia v. Heller, the Supreme Court has recognized the personal right to bear arms, guaranteed in the Second Amendment of the Constitution, and expressly held for the first time that our Bill of Rights includes this right among its guarantees of individual liberty and freedom. That is a good thing."

And here is Ohio Governor Ted Strickland, considered by many a likely Democratic vice presidential choice:

"I concur with today's landmark decision by the U. S. Supreme Court, which emphasizes what so many have long understood: The right to bear arms is a fundamental civil right like the freedoms of speech and to vote. And it's important that governments at all levels not infringe on those fundamental rights."

Here finally is presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama:

"I have always believed that the Second Amendment protects the right of individuals to bear arms, but I also identify with the need for crime-ravaged communities to save their children from the violence that plagues our streets through commonsense, effective safety measures. The Supreme Court has now endorsed that view. . . . Today's decision reinforces that if we act responsibly, we can both protect the constitutional right to bear arms and keep our communities and our children safe."

Two dramatic developments in American society account for this Democratic swing in favour of gun rights.

The first was the congressional election of 1994. Many Democrats attribute their dramatic losses that year to President Clinton's gun control legislation. Across the party there grew a new consensus: This issue had to be dropped if the Democrats were to survive as a national party.

The second change facilitated the first. Democrats were exercised about guns in the early 1990s for good reason: the U. S. was suffering a bloodbath of violence as gangs battled for control of the crack cocaine market. At the peak of the violence in 1991, the United States recorded almost 25,000 homicides.

New policing techniques advanced by innovative mayors such as New York's Rudy Giuliani ended the bloodshed. The number of homicides dropped and dropped and dropped again, falling below 16,000 by 2000. The homicide rate per 100,000 population declined to levels not seen since the early 1960s.

Gun control had always been based on a theory about how best to fight crime--and now that that theory has been exposed as false, and a new and more accurate theory has been put in its place.

Improving public safety made this new gain for civil liberty possible. Unfortunately, this new liberty is also shaping up to be a clear gain for Democrats: Barack Obama cannot now take away your guns even if he wanted to. On this once so divisive issue, the Supreme Court has helped to make Obama's Democrats bulletproof.

David Frum is a resident fellow at AEI.