High court to rule on Washington DC gun ban

By Randall Mikkelsen

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court said on Tuesday it would decide whether handguns can be banned in Washington, D.C., a case that could produce a decisive ruling on whether individual Americans have a right to keep firearms.

The nation's highest court agreed to hear an appeal by the District of Columbia government arguing that the city's 31-year-old law banning private possession of handguns in the U.S. capital should be upheld as constitutional.

The justices said they would review a precedent-setting U.S. appeals court ruling, which held that individual Americans had a right to bear arms under the Constitution's Second Amendment and struck down Washington's law.

The Supreme Court will hear arguments most likely in March, with a ruling expected by the end of June. The decision could become an issue in 2008 elections in the United States, which is estimated to have the world's highest civilian gun ownership rate.

"The Supreme Court's decision in this case will be extremely significant -- the most important decision on guns in nearly 70 years and maybe the most important ever regarding the Second Amendment," said Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.

The group said it hoped for a reversal of the "clearly erroneous" appeals ruling against the ban and warned that a failure to do so could put at risk laws such as bans on military-style assault weapons.

The politically powerful National Rifle Association, which opposes gun-control laws, denounced what it called Washington's "unconstitutional gun ban." Wayne LaPierre, NRA executive vice president, predicted the Supreme Court would overturn it and rule in favor of broad individual gun rights.

The Second Amendment says, "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."

City lawyers argued the amendment guaranteed the right to bear arms only in connection with service in a state-regulated militia, like today's National Guard, and not for individuals. Gun-control proponents have long held that view.

But the appeals court sided with a position also backed by the Bush administration and the NRA -- that the Second Amendment protects an individual's right to keep and carry arms.

FOUR STATES SUPPORT CITY

The high-court justices defined the issue as whether provisions of the Washington handgun ban violate the Second Amendment rights of individuals "who are not affiliated with any state-regulated militia but who wish to keep handguns and other firearms for private use in their homes."

The court has not ruled on the scope of the Second Amendment since a 1939 decision when it upheld a federal gun-control law but did not definitively resolve the constitutional issue.

District of Columbia Attorney General Linda Singer said in appealing to the Supreme Court that a "law that bans handguns but permits private ownership of rifles and shotguns does not deprive anyone of the right to keep and bear arms, however that right is construed."

The city's appeal was supported by the states of Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland and New York. They said allowing the appeals court ruling to stand would cloud all federal and state laws restricting access to firearms.