Court overturns DC handgun ban

By James Vicini and Jeremy Pelofsky

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court on Friday struck down a 30-year-old Washington, D.C., law that bans handguns in homes, a precedent-setting ruling that dealt a setback to a city with one of America's highest crime rates.

By a 2-1 vote, the appeals court broadly interpreted an individual's constitutional right under the Second Amendment to bear arms, and concluded the law violated those rights.

"Once we have determined -- as we have done -- that handguns are 'arms' referred to in the Second Amendment, it is not open to the District to ban them," Judge Laurence Silberman wrote for the majority of a three-judge appeals court panel.

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 guarantees the right to bear arms only for members of a militia, like today's National Guard, and not for individuals.

Silberman embraced the position that the Bush administration has advocated -- that the Second Amendment protects an individual's right to keep and bear arms.

District of Columbia Mayor Adrian Fenty said the ruling only addressed handgun possession in the home, not whether the city can regulate handguns elsewhere.

He said the ruling also turned aside long-standing precedent and marked the first time in U.S. history that a federal appeals court has struck down a gun law on Second Amendment grounds.