At roughly 1015 hrs EDT, the Supreme Court of the United States affirmed the lower court ruling and struck down the unconstitutional ban on ownership of handguns and functional firearms in Washington DC. This decision is "the end of the beginning" for supporters of the 2nd amendment - it states that the 2nd amendment recognizes a pre-existing natural right to self-defense and that handgun ownership is a primary method to exercise that right.

The opinion itself is full of high-grade snark against the opponents of self-defense, and is quite easy to follow - I recommend reading at least the initial couple of pages to find out what they decided. The majority of the opinion is dedicated to why it was decided thus, and is worth a read as well.

The NRA has announced that they will be following up this monumental victory with lawsuits to apply the decision beyond DC - in a case of "lawsuit fueled and on the pad" the Illinois State Rifle Association has already filed a lawsuit challenging the Chicago ban. Note the timing of the filing - 9:15 AM Central time. On the dot for the ANNOUNCEMENT of the decision.

Per the NRA, "The National Rifle Association also plans to file lawsuits in Chicago and several suburbs, as well as San Francisco, challenging handgun restrictions there based on Thursday's outcome." I suspect that the NYC Sullivan Law is coming soon. Maybe even here in Jersey we'll see some return to constitutionality...

I said this was "the end of the beginning" and it is - this decision is a small one by itself. But the language used in the decision explicitly invites litigation and points out that the Court was asked a specific question and gave a specific answer. It is a foundation to build on, just as the early civil-rights cases were.