US Supreme Court Upholds Second Amendment

In a landmark decision, District of Columbia v. Heller(full text), the United States Supreme Court upheld the right of individuals to own and hold firearms for hunting and personal protection, including handguns. The city of Washington, in the District of Columbia, had long had a ban against handguns, even though there was little to no supporting data that the ban reduced the incidence of criminal use and murder in the district.

A lower court decision recently set aside the Washington ban as unconstitutional. The Supreme Court today affirmed the lower court decision and, in its first ruling on the meaning and intent of the Second Amendment, has upheld the majority view that the amendment indeed enshrined the right to bear arms, and not that it was the province of a militia, a view many anti-gun groups have tried to use to remove the right to personal ownership of firearms.
[Cross-posted from Gun Control Canada.Org, with permission]