The opinion can be downloaded here. Relevant quotes from the majority opinion can be found here, and a replay of our LiveBlog can be found here. Tom's commentary is here.

Answering a 217-year old constitutional question, the Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to have a gun, at least in one's home. The Court, splitting 5-4, struck down a District of Columbia ban on handgun possession. Although times have changed since 1791, Justice Antonin Scalia said for the majority, "it is not the role of this Court to pronounce the Second Amendment extinct."

Examining the words of the Amendment, the Court concluded "we find they guarantee the individual right to possess and carry weaons in case of confrontation" -- in other words, for self-defense. "The inherent right of self-defense has been central to the Second Amendment right," it added.

Local mirror of Supreme Court decision in District of Columbia v. Heller upholding the right to own a gun

Basil Parasiris was acquitted on Friday by a 12-person jury at the Longueuil courthouse, on Montreal's South Shore.

He was charged with first-degree murder in the death of Const. Daniel Tessier, who died after being shot three times last spring after he entered Parasiris's Brossard home with a battering ram during a botched drug raid.

The verdict means the jury believed Parasiris's self-defence argument was enough to raise a reasonable doubt about the charges.

The father of two insisted he believed his family was being attacked by home invaders when a police team swarmed their house on March 2, 2007.

Armed police held an innocent mechanic at gunpoint when they mistook his MP3 player for a pistol.

Darren Nixon, 28, was arrested and put in police cell for simply listening to music on his way home from work.

The shocked garage worker was then

Odd, if people were allowed to have guns (and why not, the police have them) than it wouldn't have been an issue.

MOST PEOPLE USING A SHOTGUN FOR HOME PROTECTION KEEP THE GUN IN THE CORNER OF THE BEDROOM OR UNDER THE BED. IT TAKES AT LEAST 12 SECONDS TO GET GUN FROM THE CORNER AND TURN FOR A SHOT. IT ALSO MAKES YOU TURN YOUR BACK TO THE PERPETRATOR.

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THE BACK-UP HAS U.S. UTILITY PATENT. THIS MEANS THAT NO ONE CAN MAKE A DEVICE FOR THE SAME PURPOSE FOR AS LONG AS THE PATENT IS IN EFFECT

First, check out the hilarious Back-Up Commercial.

Second, this thing is patented?! This is even dumber than Amazon's One-Click patent.