The big picture: What you need to know and why.
Debate over how to interpret Second Amendment is fiercePrecise language of Second Amendment is ambiguous Just about everybody has an opinion on the Second Amendment—and just about everybody i...
1876 Supreme Court case ruled against any individual right to bear armsSecond Amendment guaranteed only states' rights to maintain militiasState governments could regulate guns however they saw fit...
1938 Supreme Court decision supported a federal gun control lawRuled that independent gun rights had to be connected to citizens' "common obligation" to serve in militias when calledCase opened doo...
2008 Supreme Court ruling overturned DC ban on handgunsCourt reversed earlier decisions, ruling that the Second Amendment does protect an individual right to bear arms, independent of militia servi...
