Welcome! Online: 134

Moldova



High court to decide on gun rights

November 20, 2007
Subscribe to: RSS, Email

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to decide whether individuals have a right under the Second Amendment "to keep and bear arms."

In a case that will probably be heard in March and decided before the end of June, the District of Columbia asked the high court to review an appeals court decision that struck down a Washington gun ban last year. The appeals court ruled the amendment does contain an individual right to bear arms, at least to protect one's home.

A ruling in the Supreme Court case could affect gun laws and bans across the nation.

The Second Amendment to the Constitution, part of the Bill of Rights, says, "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."

Most federal courts, unlike the appeals court in the Washington case, have ruled that the amendment applies only to state militias. The U.S. Supreme Court itself has not ruled on the gun issue since 1939's U.S. vs. Miller, in which the justices said national law regulating types of firearms did not usurp state police powers.

In the Washington case, the justices took on the issue directly Tuesday, making no attempt to duck the central dispute.

The justices rewrote the "question" -- the terms under which the high court agreed to hear the case: Whether the Washington laws banning pistols and requiring weapons at home to be disassembled "violate the Second Amendment rights of individuals who are not affiliated with any state-regulated militia, but who wish to keep handguns and other firearms for private use in their homes?"

The case is District of Columbia vs. Heller, 07-290.  // Copyright 2007 by United Press International

Tags: