The Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case DC v. Heller and decide whether or not Washington, DC's 31 year ban on handgun ownership will stay or go.

The court accepted a case on the District of Columbia’s 31-year-old prohibition on the ownership of handguns. In adding the case to its calendar, for argument in March with a decision most likely in June, the court not only raised the temperature of its current term but also inevitably injected the issue of gun control into the presidential campaign.

The federal appeals court here, breaking with the great majority of federal courts to have examined the issue over the decades, ruled last March that the Second Amendment right was an individual one, not tied to service in a militia, and that the District of Columbia’s categorical ban on handguns was therefore unconstitutional.

Heller is a test case manufactured by Robert A. Levy, a Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute, a libertarian "think tank" in Washingon.

Despite the strict gun laws, DC is not without gun violence. In fact, DC saw it's 169th murder of the year in the senseless shooting of Timothy Spicer, a 25-year-old cook at the famous Ben's Chili Bowl restaurant.

I don't expect any new arguments, but it will be interesting to see what this Court does. I assume the conservatives are going to go for broke in case they don't get the White House in 2008.

One thing that I did learn recently, though, is that the argument about whether or not the 'militia' language in the amendment has any contemporary meaning may be moot.

10 USC 311 clearly defines the modern militia as:

(a) The militia of the United States consists of all able-bodied males at least 17 years of age and, except as provided in section 313 of title 32, under 45 years of age who are, or who have made a declaration of intention to become, citizens of the United States and of female citizens of the United States who are members of the National Guard.
(b) The classes of the militia are—
(1) the organized militia, which consists of the National Guard and the Naval Militia; and
(2) the unorganized militia, which consists of the members of the militia who are not members of the National Guard or the Naval Militia.

Who knew? So, it looks like (a) I'm a militiaman and (b) most women don't have the right to bear arms.

Lovely.