The Supreme Court ruling on the right to bear arms brought relief to the tens of thousands of Americans participating in militia activities just for the gun-possession perks.

When the Supremes finally decided last week that the Second Amendment gives Americans an individual (rather than collective) right to own guns, they made life easier for those of us who like firearms but don't particularly like having to deal with people.

Modern legal practice interprets the Constitutional term 'arms' as designating rifles, handguns, halberds, pitchforks, anti-personnel mines, RPGs and certain types of ground-to-air missiles - but excluding tanks, flamethrowers and nuclear weapons (even low-yield ones). Bah - lawyers! Oh well, what can you do about it?

Now those legal beagles and a whole cadre of civic groups will be battling over the gray areas left by this ruling: Are neighborhood watch groups entitled to employ howitzers? How regulated must a street gang be before it qualifies as a community militia?

It really is amazing that an amendment written so long ago remains as relevant and indispensable to keeping our rights safe today, under the drastically different circumstances of modern life. Without it, no doubt government would have felt free to invade privacy, abrogate liberty, and generally oppress the populace.