http://www.pennlive.com/columns/patr...600.xml&coll=1


Although a majority of Americans believe they have a constitutional right to keep and bear arms, as a matter of formal constitutional jurisprudence that remains an open question. The U.S. Supreme Court now seems prepared to settle it in the upcoming case of District of Columbia vs. Heller, an appeal from a decision overturning Washington D.C.'s handgun ban for violating the Second Amendment.

It has been nearly 80 years since the Supreme Court decided a case -- U.S. vs. Miller in 1939 -- dealing directly with the Second Amendment's declaration: "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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