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Supreme Court Strikes Down D.C. Handgun Law
For the first time in history, the Supreme Court used the second amendment to the United States Constitution to shoot down a gun law.
The law in question was Washington D.C.'s ban on owning handguns. Last week, five of the nine Supreme Court justices decided that law violated the second amendment. This amendment 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."
The amendment's meaning has long been debated. People who want to limit the use of guns say the amendment links gun ownership to a state's right to form a "militia," or army. Their opponents however say that it protects everyone's right to own guns. And that's what makes the Supreme Court ruling so important; it not only changes D.C. law, but also declares that individuals can own guns.
Gun control advocates fear the court's interpretation weakens gun laws. But Justice Antonin Scalia says it won't. The court's decision, he says, doesn't forbid laws related to guns, such as making it illegal for criminals to buy them or for people to carry them in schools.
The ruling will likely spark a slew of lawsuits challenging gun laws and more debate about the second amendment. That's something gun-control and gun-rights advocates can both agree on.
I'm Ben and that's what happened in our nation this week.
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