FOR the first time in US history, the Supreme Court ruled yesterday that Americans have the right to own guns for personal use, and struck down strict gun-control laws in the US capital.
The court had not conclusively interpreted the Second Amendment since its ratification in 1791. The amendment reads: "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."
The basic issue for the justices was whether the amendment protects an individual's right to own guns no matter what, or whether that right is somehow tied to service in a state militia.
In the majority opinion, Justice Antonin Scalia said the amendment protected an individual right to possess a firearm unconnected with service in a militia and to use that arm for self-defence within the home.
Although an individual now has a constitutional right to own guns, that right is not unlimited, wrote Justice Scalia, a hunter.
He said the ruling did not cast doubt on long-standing prohibitions on the possession of guns by felons and the mentally ill, or on laws forbidding the carrying of them in schools and government buildings or laws imposing conditions on gun sales.
The gun-control law adopted in Washington DC 32 years ago is the country's strictest. It bans the private possession of handguns and requires that any rifles or shotguns kept at home be unloaded and dismantled or bound by a trigger lock.
The ruling marked the first time the Supreme Court has struck down a gun-control law for violating the Second Amendment. It could be the beginning of an era in which anti-gun laws are subject to challenges.
In dissent, Justice Stephen Breyer wrote: "The decision threatens to throw into doubt the constitutionality of gun laws throughout the United States."
Gun rights supporters hailed the ruling. Wayne LaPierre, executive vice-president of the National Rifle Association, called it "the opening salvo in a step-by-step process of providing relief for law-abiding Americans everywhere that have been deprived of this freedom".
The court took the position advocated by the Bush administration. White House spokesman Tony Fratto said: "We're pleased the Supreme Court affirmed that the Second Amendment protects the right of Americans to keep and bear arms."
Republican presidential candidate John McCain applauded the ruling and criticised his Democratic opponent Barack Obama for comments he had made.
"Unlike the elitist view that believes Americans cling to guns out of bitterness, today's ruling recognises that gun ownership is a fundamental right – sacred, just as the right to free speech and assembly," Mr McCain said.
The ruling came the day after a worker at a plastics plant in Henderson, Kentucky, used a handgun to shoot and kill five people in the factory before killing himself, the latest in a series of deadly shooting sprees.
The United States is estimated to have the world's highest level of civilian gun ownership. Gun deaths average 80 a day, 34 of them homicides, according to official figures.
The Supreme Court ruling has its origin in a case brought by Dick Heller, 66, an armed security guard, who sued the city of Washington after it rejected his application to keep a handgun at home for protection.
For decades, the meaning of the Second Amendment has been at the heart of a fierce political and legal debate over gun control.
People have argued whether it guarantees the right to bear arms to individuals or to citizens in a militia.
The full article contains 607 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
