WASHINGTON (AFP) – The US Supreme Court found Monday a Chicago handgun ban to be unconstitutional in a
far-reaching ruling that makes it much harder for states and city
governments to limit gun ownership.

In a major victory for gun rights activists, but a bitter blow for those seeking to maintain gun controls in the United States, Justice Samuel Alito said the constitution was clear on the right to bear arms for self-defense.

The 5-4 majority ruling extended to all cities and states the Supreme Court's 2008 landmark affirmation that Americans have the
constitutional right -- as enshrined in the Second Amendment -- to own
weapons, including handguns.

The National Rifle Association hailed the ruling, saying it "marks a great moment in American history."

The decision, said the NRA, "is a vindication for the great majority of American citizens who have
always believed the Second Amendment was an individual right and
freedom worth defending."

Gun control advocates responded by immediately slamming the court's move, pointing to statistics that show on average 30,000 deaths --
including some 12,000 murders -- by shooting each year in the United
States, where, according to some estimates, 200 million guns are in
circulation.

Local CBS news in Chicago said at least 29 people were shot over the weekend in the city, three fatally. A weekend earlier, between Friday
night and Monday morning, the Chicago Sun-Times said 54 people were
shot, 10 of whom died.

In response to the decision, the Washington-based Violence Policy Center (VPC) stated, matter-of-fact: "People will die because of this
decision."

The ruling, charged VPC's legislative director Kristen Rand, was "a victory only for the gun lobby and America's fading firearms industry."

But, Alito argued, the right to keep and bear arms, "is not the only
constitutional right that has controversial public safety implications."

Since the 2008 ruling reaffirmed individual gun ownership rights -- a case originating out of the nation's capital, called District of
Columbia v. Heller -- cities with strict gun laws such as Chicago have
resisted the decision.

They argued the court had not made clear that the Second Amendment principle applied to local laws and states.

But on Monday the top court upheld the appeal gun rights activists had lodged against Chicago's 28-year handgun ban, ruling as
unconstitutional the restrictions and other registration obstacles they
said impeded gun ownership.

The court acknowledged that the Bill of Rights -- the constitution's first 10 amendments -- originally applied only to the federal
government.

But it ruled that the 14th Amendment's "due process" clause -- enacted after the US Civil War -- means that Bill of Rights protections such as
the Second Amendment's right to keep and bear arms must be also applied
to the states.

The court nevertheless employed a key caveat against the possibility of a total restriction of gun controls.

"The right to keep and bear arms is not 'a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose,'"
wrote Alito in the majority opinion for the court's conservative bloc.

Despite gun control supporters' "doomsday proclamations," Alito insisted the decision "does not imperil every law regulating firearms.

The court said the 2008 ruling, applied in Monday's decision, "did not cast doubt" on longstanding gun regulations like the prohibition on felons and the mentally ill owning weapons, and laws
forbidding firearms in "sensitive places" like schools and government
buildings.

The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence said it was pleased the court reaffirmed these key points that ensured US legislators were not prevented from enacting "common-sense gun laws."

Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Center, pointedly said the justices "rejected, once again, the gun lobby argument that its 'any gun, for anybody, anywhere' agenda is protected by the constitution."

Despite the celebrations of pro-gun groups, Helmke maintained there was nothing in the decision "that should prevent any state or local government from successfully defending, maintaining, or passing, sensible, strong gun laws."

The pro-gun Second Amendment Foundation (SAF), however, described the ruling as "our call to action."

The group, said vice president Alan Gottlieb, is "already preparing to challenge other highly-restrictive anti-gun laws across the country.

"Our objective is to win back our firearms freedoms one lawsuit at a time," he said.