The Supreme Court returns to the bench Monday with 17 cases still unresolved, including its first-ever comprehensive look at the Second Amendment’s right to bear arms.

The guns case - including Washington, D.C.’s ban on handguns - is widely expected to be a victory for supporters of gun rights. Top officials of the National Rifle Association said this week that they expect the handgun ban to be struck down.

The dispute over gun rights poses several important questions. Although the Second Amendment was ratified in 1791, the court has never definitively said what it means to have a right to keep and bear arms. The justices also could indicate whether, even with a strong statement in support of gun rights, Washington’s handgun ban and other gun control laws can be upheld.

Unlike the Detainee cases decided last week, I personally don’t expect this case to be a 5-4 decision. As anyone who knows anything about Washington, D.C., can tell you, the city’s gun ban has been a total failure. Its only real effect has been to disarm law-abiding citizens while giving criminals — who have no trouble acquiring illegal firearms — the peace of mind that comes with knowing they will never be confronted by a homeowner, neighbor or potential rape victim wielding a loaded gun.

The district’s firearms ban was passed 1970s in response to urban violence that swept the nation a decade earlier. Not only did the 1976 law bar possession of handguns not registered before that date, it also requires shotguns and rifles in the home to be kept unloaded and either disassembled or trigger-locked at all times. There is no exception for self-defense, and the district has repeatedly prosecuted people who used prohibited firearms in otherwise lawful acts of self-defense. I must wonder if the ban is overturned this week - whether many of those who may still be incarcerated will be entitled to “habeas.” (grin)

Notwithstanding its ban, the district ranks among the deadliest cities in America, frequently earning the title of “nation’s murder capital” and periodically announcing “crime emergencies” that the city’s leaders seem powerless to stop except through putting every cop they have on the streets of DC (armed I might add). On the news, DC shootings are a daily event - especially in the crime infested South West corner of the “diamond.” Nationally, gun bans and similar restrictions have been utterly ineffective in reducing crime. The Centers for Disease Control and the National Academy of Sciences conducted exhaustive studies and could not identify a single gun-control provision that had a meaningful impact on gun violence.

Incredibly, the same city that disarms its citizens and deprives them of the ability to defend themselves rejects any legal duty to protect them from crime. In a series of cases going back to Warren vs. District of Columbia in 1981, the district has repeatedly and successfully argued in court that it has no duty to protect its citizens against violent criminals and that no amount of negligence in doing so (or failing to do so) can ever expose the city to legal liability.

I for one am hopeful that D.C. will be converted to a “shall issue” province and that the law abiding people of D.C. will be able to enjoy the rights that every other Citizen of the United States enjoys - the right to bear arms.

My source speculated that the decision is likely to be announced Wednesday - however - it could occur any time this week.