WASHINGTON (CBS/AP) ― Does the City of Chicago’s nearly three-decade old ban on handgun ownership violate Second Amendment? The U.S. Supreme Court will soon decide.
The Supreme Court is hearing arguments Tuesday in a case that asks them to extend their landmark 2008 decision in Heller v. District of Columbia. The case being heard now, McDonald v. Chicago, asks them to extend the decision to state and local laws.
In Heller v. D.C., the court ruled then that the Second Amendment gives individuals a right to possess guns for self-defense and other purposes, but that decision only applied to federal laws, such as those of Washington, D.C.
The court has ruled that most of the rest of the Bill of Rights applies to state and local governments.
The plaintiffs in the case will all be present for as their attorneys argue the lawsuit before the Supreme Court.
The plaintiffs are:
Otis McDonald, a retiree who says he wants protection after his Far South Side house has been broken into repeatedly and he has been threatened.
David and Colleen Lawson, whose involvement stems from a scare in 2006 when Colleen Lawson was home alone with the flu and three men tried to jimmy open her back door. They ran off when they saw her through a window.
Adam Orlov, a businessman who was previously a police officer for four years, and believes that people hurt by the city’s handgun ban are those obeying it.
Chicago’s ban on the sale and possession of handguns dates from 1982, and it has been weathering legal challenges for years. But it gained newfound attention after the Heller decision.
Within days of the Heller vs. D.C. ruling, suburban Wilmette, Morton Grove and Winnetka did away with their handgun bans altogether, and Evanston repealed parts of its ban.
But in Chicago and Oak Park, the ban remained. A federal judge dismissed lawsuits by the National Rifle Association to overturn the bans, and in June of last year, a three-judge federal appeals court upheld that ruling.
Mayor Richard M. Daley wants the ban to remain in place. He says local officials need flexibility to decide how best to protect their communities.
“We have the right for health and safety to pass reasonable laws dealing with the protection and health of the people of the city of Chicago,” Daley said.
He is backed by community groups and Chicago’s congressional delegation.
“Many of my friends talk about the fact that they hunt in their state and I will tell them that many of the people who are hunting in Chicago are not hunting wild game — they are hunting each other,” U.S. Rep. Danny Davis said.
McDonald, Orlov and the Lawsons are not the only plaintiffs — the Second Amendment Foundation, an anti-gun control group, and the Illinois State Rifle Association are also named.
If Chicago’s ban is overturned and the city passes another gun law the National Rifle Association’s Todd Vandermyde predicts a flurry of lawsuits against the city.
“They’d better understand that Supreme Court opinions are not advisory in nature,” he said. “They’re either going to comply or they’re going to find themselves on the long end of a lot of litigation.”
Read the original article from WBBM News Radio.
Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services