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Court action threatens softer handgun laws
A legal challenge to Chicago's 28-year ban on handguns could shoot down the right of individual states and cities in America to draft their own gun laws.
The Supreme Court action by four citizens who want the right to defend themselves against potential assault and robbery could unleash a chain reaction that overturns restrictive gun laws across the country.
It comes 20 months after the highest court in the US ruled as unconstitutional similar handgun laws in Washington DC.
The legal challenge touches a hot button issue in America where gun laws are constantly derided by lobbyists, such as the powerful National Rifle Association, as running counter to the constitution's Second Amendment, which enshrines the right of citizens ''to keep and bear arms''.