The U.S. Supreme Court in a 5-4 ruling today invalidated the nation’s strictest gun law. In D.C. v. Heller (opinion), the high court said the District of Columbia’s 32-year-old ban on handguns violated the Second Amendment, which holds that “A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.”
Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for the majority, said the Second Amendment does not permit “the absolute prohibition of handguns held and used for self-defense in the home.”
Justice John Paul Stevens wrote a dissent, which was joined by Justices Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and David Souter. Stevens said the majority “would have us believe that over 200 years ago, the Framers made a choice to limit the tools available to elected officials wishing to regulate civilian uses of weapons.”
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