WASHINGTON: The US Supreme Court on Tuesday takes up for the first time in 70 years the thorny issue of the right to bear arms, an emotional subject that has long divided the American public.

The court’s decision — on whether the right to keep and bear arms is a fundamentally an individual or collective right — is expected to have a far reaching impact on US gun control laws, experts say.

The high court has never before issued a ruling on the interpretation of the second amendment to the constitution, which states: “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.” At the centre of the case is the nation’s capital city, Washington, which has some of the toughest gun control laws in the country.

Private possession of handguns is strictly banned here, and any rifles or shotguns kept in homes must be disassembled or kept under a trigger lock.

Washington government officials say the ban, instituted in 1976, is necessary to keep street violence and murder rates down, and that the second amendment protects gun rights for people associated with militias, not individuals.

“I’m confident in our case, and our continued ability to protect residents from gun violence,” said Mayor Adrian Fenty upon filing his legal team’s brief earlier this month.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs in the case, District of Columbia vs. Heller, first argued in 2003 that the DC gun ban violates the citizens’ second amendment rights.

Alan Gura, the lead attorney for the plaintiff, questioned the anti-crime impact of the city’s laws, saying they have “accomplished nothing except to prevent law-abiding citizens from exercising their constitutional right to keep and bear arms.” Interest in the case, originally brought by a federal building guard who carries a handgun on duty and wanted to keep it in his home for self-defence, has been steadily building, as evidenced by the rash of “friend of the court” amicus briefs filed on both sides.

Supporters of gun rights include groups as varied as Pink Pistols and Gays and Lesbians for Individual Liberty, Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership, 126 Women State Legislatures, and the powerful gun lobby, the National Rifle Association.

“More anti-gay hate crimes occur in the home than in any other location,” the Pink Pistols said in their brief, which says guns should be allowed inhomes for self-defence purposes.

On the other side, law enforcement groups, the American Bar Association, US mayors and coalitions against domestic violence argue that easy access to handguns causes murder rates to rise.

“Women are killed by intimate partners — husbands, lovers, ex-husbands or ex-lovers — more often than by any other category of killer,” said a brief by the National Network to End Domestic Violence, adding that such killings were the leading cause of death for African-American women aged 15-45.

“When a gun is in the house, an abused woman is six times more likely than any other abused women to be killed.” However, gun rights advocates believe that momentum is in their favour.

“The overwhelming weight of the evidence and opinion is that the right of the people to keep and bear arms is an individual right,” said Randy Barnett, legal expert at Georgetown University.

“The only issue is whether its exercise is somehow conditioned on being a member of an organised militia,” said Barnett, who filed an amicus brief with academics in support of overturning the gun ban.

“What is unconstitutional is the prohibition or ban on the rightful exercise of this constitutionally protected liberty,” he said.

“Separating the right to bear arms from the maintenance of a well-regulated militia would cast doubt on the authority of state and local governments to regulate firearms,” the ABA said.

The SC last took up the issue in 1939, but its ruling on a case involving alleged bank robbers and registration of certain firearms did not directly address the question of the individual versus collective right to bear arms.

A decision in the current case is not expected until June.—AFP