Justices may extend 2nd Amendment's reach

WASHINGTON, March 2 (UPI) -- A majority of the U.S. Supreme Court appeared ready Tuesday to force states and local communities to recognize the individual right to a firearm.

The Second Amendment protects the right to keep and bear arms, the justices ruled in 2008 while striking down a District of Columbia gun ban, but that ruling applied only to federal enclaves.

The issue in Tuesday's case out of Chicago is whether that right can be enforced in the states and local communities across the country, where 20,000 gun control laws may be at risk.

Justice Stephen Breyer appeared to be the only member of the court willing to accept the argument that gun bans in Chicago and Oak Park, Ill., should be preserved, SCOTUSblog.com reported. The high court case arose out of a Chicago man's challenge to the local gun bans.

Among the questions in the case: How should the Bill of Rights be applied to the states, as opposed to the federal government. In the early days of the American Republic, it was assumed the first 10 amendments to the Constitution applied only to the federal government. It was only later that the courts, including the Supreme Court, used the 14th Amendment to apply them to state and local governments.

A majority of the court appeared ready Tuesday to use the "due process" guarantee of the 14th Amendment to enforce the Second Amendment's guarantee of the right to arms on the states and localities, the report said.

But the justices also appeared to be looking for a way to let states and localities lightly regulate that right, SCOTUSblog reported.

The justices should hand down a decision in the landmark case before recessing for the summer in late June.