U.S. Supreme Court agrees to hear handgun case

      

In a move sure to be closely watched by both Second Amendment advocates and the gun-ban lobby, the high court has agreed to hear the District of Columbia v. Heller civil-rights case.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, independently splitting from the 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 absolute ban on handguns was unconstitutional.

Since 1976, the District of Columbia has denied its citizens the right to keep and bear an operable firearm even in their homes, effectively rendering law-abiding citizens unable to defend themselves in one of the murder capitals of the nation. Washington D.C. has become a city where only criminals and government agents are armed. Handguns are strictly prohibited and rifles and shotguns must be disassembled or trigger locked. Such restrictive laws against private possession of arms, tend to increase crime rates.

The National Rifle Association (NRA) will participate in the case through briefs as a friend of the court. Oral arguments are likely to take place in early 2008.

The case has wide-ranging ramifications and the Robert’s court will be the focus of rapt attention from those on both sides of this Second Amendment issue.