US SUPREME COURT LIMITS GUN CONTROL BY STATES
The US Supreme Court struck down a Chicago handgun ban in a far-reaching ruling that makes it unconstitutional for states and local governments to restrict the right of Americans to own guns.
In a major victory for gun rights activists, but a bitter blow for those seeking to maintain gun controls in the United States, Justice Samuel Alito said the constitution was clear on the right to bear arms for self-defense.
The 5-4 majority ruling extended to all cities and states the Supreme Court’s 2008 landmark affirmation that Americans have the constitutional right -- as enshrined in the Second Amendment -- to own weapons, including handguns.
The National Rifle Association hailed Monday’s ruling, saying it "marks a great moment in American history."
Gun control advocates however immediately slammed the ruling, pointing to statistics that show on average 30,000 deaths -- including some 12,000 murders -- by shooting each year in the United States, where according to some estimates roughly 200 million guns are in circulation.
The Washington-based Violence Policy Center (VPC) stated, matter-of-fact: "People will die because of this decision."
In announcing the court’s majority opinion, however, Alito noted that since the Chicago handgun ban was enacted 28 years ago, the city’s murder rate by handguns actually increased.
Since the 2008 ruling -- a case originating out of the nation’s capital, called District of Columbia v. Heller -- cities with strict gun laws such as Chicago had resisted the decision.
They argued it had not made clear that the Second Amendment principle applied to local laws and states.
But in its decision on the case McDonald v. Chicago, the top court upheld the appeal that gun rights activists lodged against Chicago’s handgun ban, overturning restrictions and other gun registration elements they said impeded gun ownership.
In the majority opinion, the court maintained "self-defense is a basic right" and recalled how its 2008 ruling found "individual self-defense is ’the central component’ of the Second Amendment right."
The court acknowledged that the Bill of Rights -- the Constitution’s first 10 amendments -- originally applied only to the federal government.
But it ruled the 14th Amendment’s "due process" clause -- enacted after the US Civil War -- holds that the Bill of Rights protections such as the Second Amendment’s right to keep and bear arms must be also applied to the states.
The court, however, also employed a key caveat against the possibility of a total restriction of gun controls, which was used in the 2008 decision -- recognizing "the right to keep and bear arms is not ’a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose.’"
The court also said its ruling in Heller and applied for Monday’s decision "did not cast doubt" on longstanding gun regulations, like the prohibition on felons and the mentally ill owning weapons, and laws forbidding firearms in "sensitive places" like schools and government buildings.
In a major victory for gun rights activists, but a bitter blow for those seeking to maintain gun controls in the United States, Justice Samuel Alito said the constitution was clear on the right to bear arms for self-defense.
The 5-4 majority ruling extended to all cities and states the Supreme Court’s 2008 landmark affirmation that Americans have the constitutional right -- as enshrined in the Second Amendment -- to own weapons, including handguns.
The National Rifle Association hailed Monday’s ruling, saying it "marks a great moment in American history."
Gun control advocates however immediately slammed the ruling, pointing to statistics that show on average 30,000 deaths -- including some 12,000 murders -- by shooting each year in the United States, where according to some estimates roughly 200 million guns are in circulation.
The Washington-based Violence Policy Center (VPC) stated, matter-of-fact: "People will die because of this decision."
In announcing the court’s majority opinion, however, Alito noted that since the Chicago handgun ban was enacted 28 years ago, the city’s murder rate by handguns actually increased.
Since the 2008 ruling -- a case originating out of the nation’s capital, called District of Columbia v. Heller -- cities with strict gun laws such as Chicago had resisted the decision.
They argued it had not made clear that the Second Amendment principle applied to local laws and states.
But in its decision on the case McDonald v. Chicago, the top court upheld the appeal that gun rights activists lodged against Chicago’s handgun ban, overturning restrictions and other gun registration elements they said impeded gun ownership.
In the majority opinion, the court maintained "self-defense is a basic right" and recalled how its 2008 ruling found "individual self-defense is ’the central component’ of the Second Amendment right."
The court acknowledged that the Bill of Rights -- the Constitution’s first 10 amendments -- originally applied only to the federal government.
But it ruled the 14th Amendment’s "due process" clause -- enacted after the US Civil War -- holds that the Bill of Rights protections such as the Second Amendment’s right to keep and bear arms must be also applied to the states.
The court, however, also employed a key caveat against the possibility of a total restriction of gun controls, which was used in the 2008 decision -- recognizing "the right to keep and bear arms is not ’a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose.’"
The court also said its ruling in Heller and applied for Monday’s decision "did not cast doubt" on longstanding gun regulations, like the prohibition on felons and the mentally ill owning weapons, and laws forbidding firearms in "sensitive places" like schools and government buildings.
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