Today the Supreme Court released its decision affirming Heller v. District of Columbia, finding the Second Amendment protects an individual right to own and possess a handgun for defensive purposes in one’s home.

The finding of an individual right has been widely expected in the gun rights community since oral arguments earlier this year, but the results were still a bit surprising, at least to me.

First, the court was divided 5-4, with all four liberals dissenting. If Justice Kennedy had gone the other way, we’d have a SCOTUS precedent for the collective rights interpretation of the 2A!