WASHINGTON (AP) - Lawmakers and gun rights supporters are quickly reacting to the Supreme Court's 5-4 ruling that Americans have a right to own guns for self-defense and hunting.

Wisconsin Democratic Senator Russ Feingold calls it a long overdue decision, saying he didn't think "the precedent has been seriously reaffirmed in decades."

But fellow Democrat Dianne Feinstein of California says

 

"70 years of precedent has gone out the window" and that the people of the country will be less safe because of it.

Wayne LaPierre of the National Rifle Association calls the decision "the opening salvo in a step-by-step process." He says the NRA will file lawsuits in San Francisco, Chicago and several of its suburbs challenging handgun restrictions there based on today's decision.

The ruling struck down the District of Columbia's 32-year-old ban on handguns and goes even further than even the Bush administration wanted. But it left intact the licensing of guns.

The court had not conclusively interpreted the Second Amendment since its ratification in 1791. The amendment reads: "A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed."

The basic issue for the justices was whether the amendment protects an individual's right to own guns no matter what, or whether that right is somehow tied to service in a state militia.

 

(Above Photo: Getty Images)