Supreme Court set to hear gun rights case

The Supreme Court will wade deeper into the debate over gun rights this term when it hears a challenge to registration requirements in Chicago.

McDonald v. Chicago is the first such case since the court declared an individual's right to own a firearm in 2008, and gun-rights proponents are hoping to strike down requirements that Chicago residents register firearms before they buy them, and that the weapons be re-registered annually.

Gun-rights advocates say the re-registration is nothing more than an annual tax on guns.

The suit also challenges Chicago's ban on handgun registration, which gun-rights supporters say amounts to a backdoor ban on handguns.

Chicago's ban is similar to that of Washington, D.C., a ban that was overturned by the court in the 2008 case, District of Columbia v. Heller. In that case, the court issued its first decision ever that addressed whether the Second Amendment applies to individuals.

Gun-rights advocates say the court's taking up the case would open the possibility of extending the Heller decision to the rest of the country.

"We're very pleased. It's a natural follow-up to the historic Heller decision," said Chris Cox, the NRA's top lobbyist in Washington. "I think most Americans agree that Second Amendment rights aren't reserved for those people who live in Washington, D.C., federal enclaves and Indian reservations."

The decision "should be applied equally, and we're going to continue to work to make sure that the law of the land recognizes that individual right," Cox said.

After the Heller decision, gun-rights advocates immediately filed a number of suits challenging local bans on gun ownership across the country. Earlier this year, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the city.

Gun-control advocates said the high court's move was expected, given the Heller decision and the follow-on cases filed by allies of the NRA around the country. Some said McDonald is unlikely to have a far-reaching impact, even if the Chicago ban is overturned.

"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," said Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence.

"Since the Heller decision, the gun lobby and criminals have brought at least 170 challenges to gun laws or to block criminal gun prosecutions. With only a handful of exceptions, those challenges have failed," Helmke said.