Gun rights advocates believe that momentum is in their favor.
"The overwhelming weight of the evidence and opinion is that the right of the people to keep and bear arms is an individual right," said Randy Barnett, legal expert at Georgetown University.
If the conservative-leaning high court rules that the right laid out in the Constitution is an individual one, the American Bar Association predicts a far-reaching effect on the ability of governments to restrict gun carrying among citizens.
"Separating the right to bear arms from the maintenance of a well-regulated militia would cast doubt on the authority of state and local governments to regulate firearms," the ABA said.
The Supreme Court last took up the issue in 1939, but its ruling on a case involving alleged bank robbers and registration of certain firearms did not directly address the question of the individual versus collective right to bear arms.
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