Download our pdf to read the transcript of oral arguments in McDonald v. City of Chicago..

The Court has refused a media request to promptly release the audiotape.

Analysis from Buckeye Firearms Association Legislative Chair Ken Hanson, the attorney of record for Buckeye Firearms Foundation, which filed friend-of-the-court briefs in both the McDonald and Heller Supreme Court cases, is forthcoming.

Related Story:
Buckeye Firearms Foundation and USCCA file brief in U.S. Supreme Court case

By Lyle Denniston

The Supreme Court on Tuesday seemed poised to require state and local governments to obey the Second Amendment guarantee of a personal right to a gun, but with perhaps considerable authority to regulate that right. The dominant sentiment on the Court was to extend the Amendment beyond the federal level, based on the 14th Amendment's guarantee of "due process," since doing so through another part of the 14th Amendment would raise too many questions about what other rights might emerge.

When the Justices cast their first vote after starting later this week to discuss where to go from here, it appeared that the focus of debate will be how extensive a "right to keep and bear arms" should be spelled out: would it be only some "core right" to have a gun for personal safety, or would it include every variation of that right that could emerge in the future as courts decide specific cases? The liberal wing of the Court appeared to be making a determined effort to hold the expanded Amendment in check, but even the conservatives open to applying the Second Amendment to states, counties and cities seemed ready to concede some — but perhaps fewer — limitations.

By Chad D. Baus

As we reported last November, Attorney General Richard Cordray is a co-sponsor on an amicus brief in landmark gun rights case heard earlier today by the United States Supreme Court. The brief, which Cordray's office and its counterpart in Texas led the writing of and which was signed by 38 state attorneys general, argues that these rights should be protected from undue restrictions imposed by state and local governments.

As a Cleveland Plain Dealer story notes today, that puts the State of Ohio at odds with anti-gun city governments in places like Cleveland and Columbus.

Editor's Note: The United States Supreme Court will hear oral arguments today in the Second Amendment case, McDonald, et al., v. Chicago, et al. (08-1521). The Court has refused a media request to promptly release the audiotape. The written transcript of today's argument will be released later in the day. The argument is scheduled for one hour, starting at 10 a.m. Check back for more coverage once the transcript of this landmark case is released.

By John Lott

In the 2008 Heller decision, the Supreme Court struck down Washington, D.C.'s handgun ban and gunlock requirements. Unsurprisingly, gun control advocates predicted disaster. They were wrong. What actually happened in our nation's capital after the Heller decision ought to be remembered [today] as the Supreme Court hears a similar constitutional challenge to the Chicago handgun ban.

When the Heller case was decided, Washington's Mayor Adrian Fenty warned: "More handguns in the District of Columbia will only lead to more handgun violence." Knowing that Chicago's gun laws would soon face a similar legal challenge, Mayor Richard Daley was particularly vocal. The day that the Heller decision was handed down, Daley said that he and other mayors across the country were "outraged" by the decision and he predicted more deaths along with Wild West-style shootouts. Daley warned that people "are going to take a gun and they are going to end their lives in a family dispute."

But Armageddon never arrived.