“More than 120 pages of proposed rules … governing the future of space tourism touch on medical standards for passengers, preflight training and other topics,” the AP reported. Among these “other topics” were “Security Requirements,” which included “restrictions [to] prohibit a person carrying explosives, firearms, knives, or other weapons ….”

The resulting rules, published in The Federal Register, went almost unnoticed, particularly an obscure clause inexplicably claiming “[N]early all courts have also held that the Second Amendment is a collective right, rather than a personal right. Therefore … the FAA has the authority to prohibit firearms on launch and reentry vehicles for safety and security purposes.”

“Collective right?” This coming from an administration whose former Attorney General made headlines when he opined, “the text and the original intent of the Second Amendment clearly protect the right of individuals to keep and bear firearms.” This from an administration where the president agreed, stating “It was a clear reversal … the prior administration had taken the position that the Second Amendment only applies to state militias and doesn’t protect an individual right to bear arms.”

How could the FAA issue rules in conflict with the DOJ and President? Who had approved this?

According to the Senior Attorney, Office of the Chief Counsel for the FAA, “This rule … was reviewed and approved by the Executive Office of the President.”

The president’s office? What would the legal implications of this “collective rights” interpretation be? How did it come about by surprise, buried in agency rules? And why, when the media went ballistic after John Ashcroft penned his “individual rights” opinion, was there a news blackout, effectively precluding most gun owners from getting word of this reversion?

Then something happened that highlights how times are changing, and how technology provides new ways to protect freedom: the Internet came alive. Word was spread to pro-gun activists. E-mails were sent. And within a few short months, the FAA issued a correction, withdrew its “collective rights” language and acknowledged the DOJ “individual right” interpretation. True, restrictions are still in place citing the “reasonable restrictions” doctrine of “limited, narrowly tailored specific exceptions,” a position Ashcroft himself accepted in spite of “shall not be infringed,” and the subject for another day’s debate, along with the proposition of unchecked weapons on board pressurized spacecraft in a vacuum.

Since this all anticipates an unknown future, let’s speculate beyond the immediate, and tie in timeless and universal truths. Rights are unalienable, wherever and whenever people exist. And human nature will follow human beings to “the final frontier” once colonization of the Moon, Mars and beyond has begun in earnest.

The right and need of self defense will not be diminished, nor will the righteous defiance of tyrannical fetters, and ultimately, the right to rebel and chart an independent course. What manner of people do 21st Century bureaucrats think pioneers who would “tame a world” will be?

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