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GUEST: Ladd Everitt, Director of Communications at the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence

This week, the US Supreme Court heard arguments in a case involving gun control. The highest court in the nation, which has stayed out of the controversial issue for decades, will be ruling on the Second Amendment for the first time since 1939. At the heart of the matter is a ban on possessing handguns in the city of Washington DC that were not registered as of 1976. Dick Anthony Heller, a security guard, sued the District of Columbia after it denied him permission to register his personal handgun. During the course of the hearing on Tuesday, a majority of Supreme Court justices seemed to be leaning towards the right of ordinary Americans to bear arms versus the collective right of state militias, such as National Guard units. According to the Second Amendment, “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.” However, legal precedent in the 1939 Supreme Court case over gun rights asserted that the Second amendment did not guarantee the right of Americans to bear arms. To date, 67 “friends of the court” briefs have been submitted to the court, the majority of them coming from gun rights advocates. The court’s decision is expected to come in late June.

For more information, visit www.csgv.org.