The US Supreme Court is expected to issue a ruling today on gun rights that could have an effect on Massachusetts gun control laws.
The justices could decide whether the Second Amendment's right to "keep and bear arms" serves as a check on local and state gun control laws as well as federal restrictions.
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled in March that the Second Amendment didn't currently apply to the states and therefore Massachusetts had the power to regulate gun ownership.
SJC Justice Ralph Gants, writing for the unanimous court at the time, said that the Second Amendment imposed no limits on the state's ability to regulate the possession of firearms and ammunition.
"These cases are the law of the land until the Supreme Court decides otherwise, and we are therefore bound by them," he wrote.
The state justices went ahead and ruled, even though in a November oral argument they had wondered if they should wait for the Supreme Court ruling.
In a landmark decision in 2008, the Supreme Court ruled that the Second Amendment protected an individual's right to own a firearm for self-defense, but it limited the reach of its ruling to "federal enclaves'' like the District of Columbia.
The Supreme Court is now considering a gun ownership case in Illinois in which, legal experts have said, the court is likely to determine whether the Second Amendment will now be explicitly extended to the states – and state laws and regulations set up to control the use, sale and storage of firearms.
