Commentary: Sam Backs Court's Gun Ruling

June 26, 2008— -- The following is a commentary by ABC News' Sam Donaldson. Click here to view a video version of Sam's latest essay

I think the Supreme Court was right to find that government cannot prohibit people from keeping a handgun at home for self-defense.

Now, I've long backed the efforts of the Brady campaign to cut down on gun violence. I watched as my friend Jim Brady was shot down in 1981, along with his boss and former President Ronald Reagan and two others. And over the years, the National Rifle Association has more than once suggested to ABC News that I be fired because of my participation in gun-control activities.

By the way, the Brady campaign disagrees with the majority decision; it was, after all, a five to four vote.

But here, I think the majority correctly interpreted the Second Amendment of the Constitution, coming down on the side that the framers did not mean with their preamble clause about a "well-regulated militia" to confine gun ownership to militia members, and if we want to change that, we need to amend the Constitution.

Fortunately, the court made clear its decision is limited, that government can regulate gun ownership in such ways as requiring registration, can pass on the type of weapons a person may own and may forbid convicted felons and certain others from owning a gun.

But the debate and litigation on all that may continue, as the court minority warned.

When it comes to which weapons people may own, I fondly recall that wonderful day in the White House Rose Garden when President Reagan was delivering remarks about something or other and one of those old, extremely noisy passenger jets came lumbering up the nearby Potomac.

For a moment, the president had to stop talking because no one could hear him. At which point Mr. Reagan looked up toward the sky and quipped, "I wish I had a stinger."

Now the thought of the president of the United States launching a stinger missile at the noisy interloper cracked us up. Ronald Reagan was just kidding, of course, and surely, the framers wouldn't have approved of letting people own that type of "arm." I'll have to check with the NRA to see what its latest position is on that.

Sam Donaldson, a 41-year ABC News veteran, served two appointments as chief White House correspondent for ABC News, from January 1998 to August 1999, and from 1977-1989, covering Presidents Carter, Reagan and Clinton. Donaldson also co-anchored, with Diane Sawyer, "PrimeTime Live," from August 1989 until it merged with "20/20" in 1999. He co-anchored the ABC News Sunday morning broadcast, "This Week With Sam Donaldson and Cokie Roberts," from December 1996 to September 2002. Currently, Sam Donaldson appears on ABC News Now, the ABC News digital network, in the daily show "Politics Live."