Supreme court considering Chicago gun ban

The U.S. Supreme Court will begin hearing arguments in a case challenging Chicago’s handgun ban today.

The court struck down a similar ban in Washington, D.C., in 2008. Because the District of Columbia federal district is not a state, that ruling applied only to federal laws. The Chicago case will decide whether the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution applies to state and local laws.

The ruling could affect local gun control laws, such as bans on carrying concealed weapons and requirements that guns be stored with trigger locks, throughout the country.