The news has just been released that the US Circuit Court for DC has ruled against a 30 year old ban on handguns in the District of Columbia.

In the opinion, the justices noted that there was an INDIVIDUAL right to keep and bear arms, and that this right is protected in the US Constitution.

Note, the phrase "Court strikes down gun ban" will often be used in reporting of this event. That is imprecise. The court has ruled on a certain CASE. The law will still stand, until the Congress eliminates it, or replaces it with something else. Functionally, the law is not going to be prosecuted, because all prosecutors and police would know that, based on the ruling of the court, any case they TRIED to prosecute would eventually go to the same justices upon appeal, and the justices would again rule against the prosecution for the violation of what they determine to be an unconstitutional law.

This is an important point to remember about the operation of our government. The state supreme courts and federal circuit and supreme courts can never take a law off the books or replace it with something else, they can only rule, on appeal, on the case before them.

The story is linked here: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=azTOCL.ZiDGM&refer=u...