A 5-4 ruling upholding the right of Americans to own guns pleases the governor and attorney general.
To Governor Blunt, there wasn’t really a question as to whether the Second Amendment conferred an individual right to bear arms.
"The Supreme Court didn’t give us the right," Blunt told the Missourinet, "The United States Constitution clearly states that the American people have a right to keep and bear firearms. The court has affirmed that and I am very pleased with their decision."
The decision strikes down Washington, D. C.’s ban on handgun ownership. The ruling found that government can enact gun ownership restrictions, but that the District’s prohibition went too far.
A spokesman for Attorney General Jay Nixon, Scott Holste, says Nixon joined 29 other attorneys general who filed briefs with the Supreme Court, arguing that the Second Amendment conferred an individual right. He says the Supreme upheld that argument. Others had argued that it was a collective right reserved only for those who were members of a militia.
Holste says the ruling supports what he calls Missouri’s common sense gun laws.