US top court extends gun rights to states, cities

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The US Supreme Court yesterday extended gun rights to every state and city in the nation in a ruling likely to spur new challenges to gun control measures across the United States.

The 5-4 ruling could ultimately make it easier for individuals to own handguns in a country that already has the world’s highest civilian gun ownership rate. Some 90 million Americans own an estimated 200 million guns.

Splitting along conservative and liberal lines, the nation’s highest court extended its landmark 2008 ruling — that individual Americans have a constitutional right to own guns — to all cities and states for the first time.

The decision extending gun rights, one of the country’s most divisive social, political and legal issues, was a setback for Chicago’s 28-year-old ban on handguns, which now faces new judicial review and is likely to be eventually overturned.

Legal challenges to existing laws restricting gun use in other states and cities are also expected.

Investors saw the ruling as a win for gun makers, pushing shares of Smith & Wesson Holding Corp up 5.6 percent and Sturm Ruger & Co up 2.2 percent yesterday.

The right to bear arms, under the Second Amendment of the US Constitution, previously applied only to federal laws and federal enclaves, like Washington DC, where the court struck down a similar handgun ban in its 2008 ruling.

The ruling, issued on the last day of the Supreme Court’s term, was a victory for four Chicago-area residents, two gun rights groups and the powerful National Rifle Association.

“This decision makes absolutely clear that the Second Amendment protects the God-given right of self-defense for all law-abiding Americans, period,” said Chris Cox, the rifle association’s chief lobbyist.

Chicago had defended its law as a reasonable exercise of local power to protect public safety. That law, and a similar handgun ban in suburban Oak Park, Illinois, were the nation’s most restrictive gun control measures.

“We hold that the Second Amendment right is fully applicable to the states,” Justice Samuel Alito concluded for the court majority, ruling that the right to bear arms was a fundamental right.

It could take years of lawsuits before courts draw a clear line between an individual’s right to a gun for self-defence and reasonable government gun regulations to reduce violent crimes like murder, suicide and accidental shooting deaths.

The justices did not strike down the Chicago law directly, but sent the case back to a US appeals court for review, where it appeared likely to be struck down under the ruling.

Gun control advocates had expected the ruling and predicted that reasonable regulations would survive future challenges.

Paul Helmke of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence said, “We can expect two things as a result of today’s decision. … The gun lobby and gun criminals will use it to try to strike down gun laws, and those legal challenges will continue to fail.”

The court’s four liberal justices dissented.