Chicago Gun Case

The City of Chicago and the National Rifle Association are getting ready to tangle in Washington.

The place is the Supreme Court, and some gun advocates say, at stake is the 2nd Amendment itself.

"We love our guns so much, and we see the devastation from that every day," says Mayor Richard Daley and the city of Chicago have some of the most restrictive gun laws in the nation.

If you're a homeowner in Chicago and you want to protect your home, if you use a gun like this, a shotgun, you're fine. But if you want to use a pistol, you're not even allowed to own it.

"We are of the opinion that the Supreme Court got it wrong," says James Lowey of the Brady Center for the Prevention of Gun Violence.

"In the Heller case, of course we won on that point,” says Dane von Breichenruchart of the Bill of Rights Foundation, “So the district of Columbia could no longer prevent you from using a gun for self defense, because that was what the case was all about."

And now the Supreme Court has agreed to hear this case. And although there's not a single amendment in the Bill of Rights that doesn't have some limitation on it, for some, it goes to the core of the Second Amendment.

"If you'll notice in the wording of the amendment,” Dane told us, “it doesn't say it is a right, as though they were creating a right, it says it is the right. And what's important about that is that this demonstrates that the right existed and was recognized even in colonial times."

"This case is going to decide,” James declared, “simply, does the second amendment right that was recognized in Heller, rightly or wrongly, does it apply to states and localities?"

"The principle is, the more guns you have the less crime you have," von Breichenruchardt said.

"That is simply not true,” Lowey replied. “If it were true that more guns were the answer, we'd be the safest country in the world."

"The problem is that the number of guns that are in circulation is astronomical, I mean, that cat's out of the hat."
One argument the city may use is that the Second Amendment says that Congress shall make no law...this law was made by the city and state.

Either way though, this June may see a sweeping change to gun laws in this country.