Conservative Culture

Photo and content: LA Times

It will be one of the biggest cases ever. If they get it right it will free up the second amendment around the country. If they get it wrong it will be a huge mess for years to come. Let’s be thankful that we have more clear thinking judges than we did a decade ago. The court did issue what they plan to rule on in the last paragraph of this snippet.

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court set the stage Tuesday for a historic ruling on whether the fiercely debated 2nd Amendment protects the rights of Americans to keep handguns at home.

The justices said they would review an appeals court decision that struck down a 31-year-old ban on handguns in Washington, D.C. The case will be heard early next year and decided by next summer.

While outright bans on the private possession of guns are rare, many cities and states regulate firearms. If the high court rules in favor of gun owners, the decision could open the door to challenges to regulations and restrictions on firearms across the nation.

In their appeal, District of Columbia officials say their ban on easily concealed handguns dates back to 1858. And they argue handguns are involved in most violent crime. Under the city ordinance passed in 1976, residents may keep shotguns or hunting rifles at home, but these weapons must be disassembled or have trigger locks. Handguns are illegal, except in the hands of police officers.

Six city residents challenged the ordinance as unconstitutional and said it denied them the right to have “functional firearms” at home for self defense…..

But in recent decades, both the National Rifle Assn. and several constitutional scholars have argued the “right to keep and bear arms” was intended from the beginning to protect the rights of individual Americans to defend themselves.

In March, Judge Laurence H. Silberman said it did not make sense to view the 2nd Amendment as a protection for states, not individuals. “The Bill of Rights was almost entirely a declaration of individual rights, and the 2nd Amendment’s inclusion there strongly indicates that it, too, was intended to protect personal liberty,” he wrote for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.

Among the city residents who challenged the D.C. ban as unconstitutional is Dick Heller, a courthouse security guard who carries a handgun while on duty and wants to keep one at home.

“I want to be able to defend myself and my wife from violent criminals, and the Constitution says I have a right to do that by keeping a gun in my home,” Heller said Tuesday. “The police can’t be everywhere, and they can’t protect everyone all the time.”

In agreeing to hear the case, District of Columbia vs. Heller, the justices issued an order saying they would rule on whether the city’s handgun ban “violates the 2nd 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.”