By NEIL H. SIMON, Media General News Service
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WASHINGTON -- Eric Suedberg drove all night from Virginia Beach, Va., to be here for the U.S. Supreme Court's biggest gun rights showdown in 69 years.
Suedberg owns 12 guns and sees the case as a test of his civil rights.
"Each time you have an issue like this, it's one more step to take rights from the citizens," he said.
At the center of the debate is a 1976 Washington law, which bans handguns and requires other weapons to be stored unloaded and disassembled.
Suedberg and hundreds of others on both sides did not get inside the highest court to hear oral arguments in the case Tuesday, but he demonstrates the passion the national gun debate inspires.
Other Virginians, including the state attorney general, made their position known through court filings.
Attorney General Bob McDonnell joined 30 other state attorneys general in a brief calling for the high court to strike down the District of Columbia's law.
"Taken to its extreme, the only people who would be allowed to have a gun would be police and soldiers," McDonnell said in an interview. "I don't think that's what the founders had in mind."
More than 70 groups filed friend of the court briefs -- 48 arguing against the District's tough gun restrictions.
McDonnell said he wants to know what restrictions are appropriate.
"We certainly don't think an absolute ban, as they have in D.C., is appropriate because it clearly infringes on the right to bear arms," he said.
Gun control advocates have said the Second Amendment's reference to a "well regulated militia" makes the right to bear arms a collective right, not an individual one and should lead the court to uphold the handgun ban.
"That would be just one more validation of a very common sense gun policy" said Doug Pennington, a spokesman for the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence.
The Virginia Gun Owners Coalition sees it differently.
"If the court says something idiotic, (like the amendment is) meant only for militias, than liberty has been assaulted terribly," president Mike McHugh said.
Much of Virginia's congressional delegation weighed in on the gun case with friend of the court briefs.
Sen. Jim Webb and Rep. Rick Boucher, both Democrats, joined all Virginia Republican House members signing a brief with 306 federal lawmakers, including Vice President Dick Cheney, opposing the District's law.
Rep. Jim Moran, a Democrat, who represents several Washington suburbs, was the only member of the Virginia delegation to join 12 members of Congress supporting the handgun ban.
Rep. Robert Scott, a Democrat, and Sen. John Warner, a Republican, did not sign with either side. Scott said he supports the District's gun law.
Outside the Supreme Court building, Tara Henigan of Falls Church, Va., held a sign "sensible gun laws save lives." She stood with gun control advocates supporting the District's law.
Losing this case, Henigan said, could lead other jurisdictions to shy away from enacting gun control laws.
"You're heading down a slippery slope," she said. "Reasonable gun laws could be challenged."
Suedberg owns 12 guns and sees the case as a test of his civil rights.
"Each time you have an issue like this, it's one more step to take rights from the citizens," he said.
At the center of the debate is a 1976 Washington law, which bans handguns and requires other weapons to be stored unloaded and disassembled.
Suedberg and hundreds of others on both sides did not get inside the highest court to hear oral arguments in the case Tuesday, but he demonstrates the passion the national gun debate inspires.
Other Virginians, including the state attorney general, made their position known through court filings.
Attorney General Bob McDonnell joined 30 other state attorneys general in a brief calling for the high court to strike down the District of Columbia's law.
"Taken to its extreme, the only people who would be allowed to have a gun would be police and soldiers," McDonnell said in an interview. "I don't think that's what the founders had in mind."
More than 70 groups filed friend of the court briefs -- 48 arguing against the District's tough gun restrictions.
McDonnell said he wants to know what restrictions are appropriate.
"We certainly don't think an absolute ban, as they have in D.C., is appropriate because it clearly infringes on the right to bear arms," he said.
Gun control advocates have said the Second Amendment's reference to a "well regulated militia" makes the right to bear arms a collective right, not an individual one and should lead the court to uphold the handgun ban.
"That would be just one more validation of a very common sense gun policy" said Doug Pennington, a spokesman for the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence.
The Virginia Gun Owners Coalition sees it differently.
"If the court says something idiotic, (like the amendment is) meant only for militias, than liberty has been assaulted terribly," president Mike McHugh said.
Much of Virginia's congressional delegation weighed in on the gun case with friend of the court briefs.
Sen. Jim Webb and Rep. Rick Boucher, both Democrats, joined all Virginia Republican House members signing a brief with 306 federal lawmakers, including Vice President Dick Cheney, opposing the District's law.
Rep. Jim Moran, a Democrat, who represents several Washington suburbs, was the only member of the Virginia delegation to join 12 members of Congress supporting the handgun ban.
Rep. Robert Scott, a Democrat, and Sen. John Warner, a Republican, did not sign with either side. Scott said he supports the District's gun law.
Outside the Supreme Court building, Tara Henigan of Falls Church, Va., held a sign "sensible gun laws save lives." She stood with gun control advocates supporting the District's law.
Losing this case, Henigan said, could lead other jurisdictions to shy away from enacting gun control laws.
"You're heading down a slippery slope," she said. "Reasonable gun laws could be challenged."