Opposing sides in the gun-control debate are putting their own spin on the Supreme Court’s decision to hear arguments on whether Chicago’s handgun ban passes muster under the Constitution’s Second Amendment. Alan Gura, who successfully argued the case that struck down Washington, D.C.’s ban on handguns, says the Chicago law at issue now is “identical” to the one found unconstitutional in Washington, says the Washington Post.
The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence sees it differently. Its president, Paul Helmke, says, “Even if the court were to hold the Second Amendment applicable to states and localities, such a ruling is unlikely to change the crucial holding by the Supreme Court in Heller that a wide range of reasonable gun laws are presumptively constitutional, and that the Second Amendment right is narrowly limited to guns in the home for self-defense.” The case will not be argued until early 2010.