by Linda Greenhouse, The NY Times: The Supreme Court announced today that it would l decide whether the Constitution grants individuals the right to keep guns in their homes for private use, plunging the justices headlong into a divisive and long-running debate over how to interpret the Second Amendment’s guarantee of the “right of the people to keep and bear arms.” . . .The federal appeals court here, breaking with the great majority of federal courts to have examined the issue over the decades, ruled last March that the Second Amendment right was an individual one, not tied to service in a militia, and that the District of Columbia’s categorical ban on handguns was therefore unconstitutional. Both the District of Columbia government and the winning plaintiff, Dick Anthony Heller, a security officer, urged the justices to review the decision. Mr. Heller, who carries a gun while on duty guarding the federal building that houses the administrative offices of the federal court system, wants to be able to keep his gun at home for self-defense. . . .
The District of Columbia law not only bans ownership of handguns, but requires other guns like rifles and shotguns that may legally be kept in the home to be disassembled or kept under a trigger lock. The capital’s newly empowered City Council enacted the law in 1976 as one of its first measures after receiving home-rule authority from Congress. . . . [Read More]
Tags: 2nd Amendment, DC, gun control, gun rights, US Supreme Court, SCOTUS To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
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