Fareed Zakaria has cultivated a reputation as a moderate commentator, but in a recent op-ed for the Washington Post, he came out swinging with a radical attack on America’s Second Amendment rights. His tactics weren’t really any different from your typical Piers Morgan rant or Bloomberg-sanctioned screed—parroting biased CDC reports, trashing a few GOP candidates along the way—but one of his claims stands out for the sheer audacity of its ignorance.
According to Zakaria, in 2008 the Supreme Court “broke with 200 years of precedent” and “invented” an individual right to bear arms. This idea is so wrong-headed, so easy to refute by actually examining federal precedent, that not many have dared to make it so far. But there’s no need to take our word on it: Actual experts on Second Amendment law—of whom Zakaria is not one—have covered the topic for us in detail.
