High court to address gun rights, safety laws
Case tests limits of 2d Amendment
WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court set the stage for a historic ruling on gun rights and the Second Amendment by agreeing yesterday to hear a challenge to Chicago’s ban on handguns.
At issue is whether state and local gun-control ordinances can be struck down as violating the “right to keep and bear arms’’ in the Second Amendment.
A ruling on the issue, due by the summer, could open the door to legal challenges to gun control measures in cities and states. The case also will decide whether the Second Amendment protects a broad constitutional right, similar to the First Amendment’s right to free speech.
In the past, the Supreme Court had given short shrift to the Second Amendment by saying that it applies only to national laws and that its aim is to preserve “well-regulated militias.’’
This narrow view of the amendment conflicted with the views of most Americans, according to opinion polls.
Last year, the court in a 5-to-4 decision breathed new life into the amendment by ruling that it protected an individual’s right to have a handgun at home for self-defense. The decision in District of Columbia v. Heller struck down a local ban on handguns.
But since the nation’s capital is a federal enclave, the court did not reconsider its 19th-century rulings that said the Second Amendment applies only to federal laws and restrictions.
