Private gun ownership is upheld by the high court.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080626/ap_on_go_su_co/scotus_guns

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Americans have a right to own guns for self-defense and hunting, the justices' first major pronouncement on gun rights in U.S. history.

The court's 5-4 ruling struck down the District of Columbia's 32-year-old ban on handguns as incompatible with gun rights under the Second Amendment. The decision went further than even the Bush administration wanted, but probably leaves most firearms laws intact.

The court had not conclusively interpreted the Second Amendment since its ratification in 1791. The amendment reads: "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."

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Andy:

It is kind of odd how polarizing an issue that gun ownership is. In the urban area that I grew up in, just in one year in the early 1970s, there were almost 1,200 murders, 800 alone just in the central city. 12 people died from gun violence just on New Year's Eve alone. And a story in one of the Detroit newspapers back then said that there were almost 8 times as many people wounded by guns in that same year. All of this happened in one large urban area that was then only 50% larger than the Denver metro area is now.

There are many millions of handguns held in private hands. Most are held allegedly for protection. Unless you are ex-military, law enforcement, a private investigator, a hardened criminal, a professional hitman, or maybe a devout militia follower, your chance of getting blown away is several times as likely as is your chance of surprising an armed assailant in your own house.

I know, out in the middle of nowhere, everybody has a gun, because nobody knows when the natives might attack again. They maintain their skills picking off the occasional coyote or prarie dog. And they just don't understand the dynamics and horror of urban handgun violence.

Just think: If my last perp hadn't had a handgun, most likely I wouldn't have been raped and tortured at the age of 18.

Mark