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Justices Decide Constitutionality Of Handgun Ban

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By DAVID G. SAVAGE, Los Angeles Times

Published: November 21, 2007

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court set the stage Tuesday for a historic ruling on whether the Second 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. The case will be heard in early 2008 and decided by next summer.

Although outright bans on the private possession of guns are rare, many cities and states regulate firearms. If the 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 to 1858. They argue handguns are responsible for much violent crime.

Under the city ordinance passed in 1976, residents can keep shotguns or hunting rifles at home, but these weapons must be disassembled or have trigger locks. Handguns are illegal, except for law enforcement 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.

The Second Amendment is among the best-known parts of the Constitution. Its familiar words say in part "the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." These words seem to protect the right to have a gun, just as the First Amendment protects the rights to freedom of speech and the free exercise of religion.

In the past, many judges have dismissed the Second Amendment as archaic and limited to protecting a state's authority to maintain "a well-regulated militia," a phrase from the opening clause of the Amendment.

The Second Amendment's full text is: "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."

Although it has been hotly debated, the Second Amendment has had remarkably little effect in the courts. The ruling in March that struck down the Washington handgun ban marked the first time a federal court had declared a gun law violated the Second Amendment.

In its only ruling dealing directly with the Second Amendment, the Supreme Court in 1939 upheld a man's conviction for transporting a sawed-off shotgun across state lines and said these weapons had nothing to do with maintaining a state militia.

In their appeal, lawyers for Washington cite this 1939 decision and argue the history of the amendment shows it was concerned with state militias, not individuals with guns.

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