WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that
Americans have a right to own guns for self-defense and hunting,
the justices' first major pronouncement on gun rights in U.S.
history.

The court's 5-4 ruling struck down the District of Columbia's
32-year-old ban on handguns as incompatible with gun rights under
the Second Amendment. The decision went further than even the Bush
administration wanted, but probably leaves most firearms laws
intact.

The court had not conclusively interpreted the Second Amendment
since its ratification in 1791. The amendment reads: "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 basic issue for the justices was whether the amendment
protects an individual's right to own guns no matter what, or
whether that right is somehow tied to service in a state militia.

Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for four colleagues, said the
Constitution does not permit "the absolute prohibition of handguns
held and used for self-defense in the home."

In dissent, Justice John Paul Stevens wrote that the majority
"would have us believe that over 200 years ago, the Framers made a
choice to limit the tools available to elected officials wishing to
regulate civilian uses of weapons."

He said such evidence "is nowhere to be found."

Joining Scalia were Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices
Samuel Alito, Anthony Kennedy and Clarence Thomas. The other
dissenters were Justices Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and
David Souter.

The capital's gun law was among the nation's strictest.

Dick Anthony Heller, 66, an armed security guard, sued the
District after it rejected his application to keep a handgun at his
home for protection in the same Capitol Hill neighborhood as the
court.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled in
Heller's favor and struck down Washington's handgun ban, saying the
Constitution guarantees Americans the right to own guns and that a
total prohibition on handguns is not compatible with that right.

The issue caused a split within the Bush administration. Vice
President Dick Cheney supported the appeals court ruling, but
others in the administration feared it could lead to the undoing of
other gun regulations, including a federal law restricting sales of
machine guns. Other laws keep felons from buying guns and provide
for an instant background check.

Scalia said nothing in Thursday's ruling should "cast doubt on
long-standing prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons
or the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in
sensitive places such as schools and government buildings."

The law adopted by Washington's city council in 1976 bars
residents from owning handguns unless they had one before the law
took effect. Shotguns and rifles may be kept in homes, if they are
registered, kept unloaded and either disassembled or equipped with
trigger locks.

Opponents of the law have said it prevents residents from
defending themselves. The Washington government says no one would
be prosecuted for a gun law violation in cases of self-defense.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)