Supreme Court Case (April 2008) PDF Print
On March 18, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in one of the most important Second Amendment-related cases in U.S. history.  For over thirty years, the District of Columbia has had one of the most restrictive gun control laws in the nation, prohibiting ownership of handguns and requiring that rifles and shotguns be kept unloaded and disassembled.  With residents barred from taking measures to defend themselves, the city has consistently experienced very high rates of violent crime.  In 2007, a federal appeals court ruled that D.C.'s handgun ban is an unconstitutional infringement on the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens.  As a longtime supporter of the Second Amendment, I have joined over 300 other members of Congress in filing a brief with the Supreme Court urging the justices to uphold the appeals court ruling.  This case offers a unique opportunity for the Supreme Court to affirm that the Second Amendment protects individual rights and to limit the scope of gun control laws.