you all these years i could passed english if i bought a better, smarter pen? lmao thats funny right there

The reason it was 5-4 was the specific question put before the court, which was more of a jurisdictional issue rather than the constitutionality of the handgun ban. The majority decision is pretty simple - the Second Amendment isn't defunct, simply because of the phrase "well-regulated militia", and therefore the court didn't really rule on it.

But the dissenting opinions brought up good points too. Personally, I love the Second Amendment. I'm a big proponent of gun ownership. But I don't necessarily believe the Second Amendment explicitly guarantees an individual's right to bear arms in a personal sense. This would have been a tough call for me, if I was on that bench. Well, not really...I hate handgun bans, for all the reasons Raptor's already listed.

But I've made enough posts on this subject already.

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People these days...They seem to forget where we came from and what made our country: The constitution.
I feel the walls are slowing closing in on us and someday we won't be able to pee without the government analyzing it and testing if you had beer the night before and whether your a good citizen etc etc the way things are going.

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Buy my BT delta please
Proud member of the MN Militia and 360 player.

Umm...I don't know about such a circumstance prompting that behaviour, but I will say they will have very little to worry about when they break into a home assuming of course that the occupants are law-abiding. I would take that bet. Easy pickings. Remember...gun beats rock, paper, and scissors!

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Here's the court decision...it's a 157 pages long (don't worry...they use a two inch margin and a big font). The ruling is summarized in the first three pages, but the entire thing is really easy to read and extremely interesting especially in regard to the historical findings. The last 50 pages or so are the dissenting opinions by Justices Stevens and Breyers.

http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/07pdf/07-290.pdf

edits: typos

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Yep. Everything will be owned by Taco Bell! 3 sea shells anyone?

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you can ban guns all you want they will still get them no matter how you look at it! if you ban pistols, im sure the gun toteing gang members of chicago wont care if pistols are banned, the only thing they care about is there "turf"

I wonder what percentage of gun related crimes happen with unregistered guns. People playing by the rules are less likely to be the ones committing the crimes.

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Geez guys, I'm sorry. I thought it would be big news, and most people would know. This is the first time the Supreme court has ever directly ruled on the interpretation of the 2nd amendment since the birth of our country. Specifically whether the 2nd amendment really meant freedom for militias, or freedom for persons to have firearms. They ruled against the Washington DC blanket ban on handguns, saying they are allowed to have reasonable laws, but the blanket ban was non constitutional.

For reference, Chicago has more stringent guns laws then DC or anywhere else in the country. They make it EXTREMELY hard to legally own a gun. I would have to wait, I think, 6 months just to have any type of firearm licensed to me.

The NRA has vowed to continue the fight as of this landmark ruling. They will be going after the gun laws in many of the extreme cities, including Chicago.

More can be read here:
High court strikes down gun ban - CNN.com