STEWART: Second Amendment injustice :: 06/14/2011

In June 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Second Amendment to the Constitution protects an individual's right to possess a firearm "and to use that arm for traditionally lawful purposes, such as self-defense within the home." Quoting the famous British jurist William Blackstone , the court held that "the right of self-preservation" permits a citizen to "repe[l] force by force" when "the intervention of society in his behalf, may be too late to prevent an injury." This grandiose language must ring awfully hollow to Orville Lee Wollard who, two years ago tomorrow was sentenced to two decades in a Florida prison for protecting his family with a firearm.

On a spring morning in 2008, Wollard got a panicked call from his wife. The teenage boyfriend who had been beating up his 15-year old daughter was back at their house causing trouble. Wollard rushed home and found the boy on the porch and his daughter with a black eye. Wollard told the boy to leave, but instead, the boy attacked him, ripping out stitches from Wollard 's recent surgery, and then ran off with Wollard 's daughter. When the two returned several hours later, the boyfriend began shoving Orville 's daughter around the Wollards' home. Wollard 's wife and eldest daughter screamed for him to do something.

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