Not just Maryland will be watching this one – every state has a stake in how this one plays out.

Maryland Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler, county prosecutors and Baltimore City officials will be paying close attention on Tuesday as the Supreme Court takes up its first right-to-bear-arms case in 69 years.At stake is not just a handgun ban that Washington, D.C., enacted in 1976, but the extent to which state and local governments can regulate or even criminalize an individual’s possession of firearms under the Constitution.

Gansler said he hopes the Supreme Court rules that the Second Amendment’s provision regarding the “right of the people to keep and bear arms” is not absolute and gives states broad leeway to determine who may possess guns within their borders. Gun-control laws enable police and prosecutors to stop the unlawful possession of guns before they are fired, Gansler said.

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