Otis McDonald, a 76-year-old African-American who says he is afraid for his life in his Chicago neighborhood, is seeking to overturn a strict 28-year ban on handgun ownership in President Barack Obama's home city.

At issue is an age-old constitutional argument: whether the right to keep and bear arms as enshrined in the Second Amendment of the Bill of Rights applies to local and state law.

A decision from the nine Supreme Court justices, not expected until the end of June, is one of the most anticipated rulings in recent years for America's highest court, which rarely takes up the divisive issue.

McDonald's case is seen as part of a drive by the National Rifle Association (NRA) and the powerful US gun lobby to present the issue as more than one led just by rural whites.

It is also a chance for largely Republican-leaning activists to take on Obama, a Democratic president who some have sought to portray as the most anti-gun leader in American history.

Firearms are responsible for about 30,000 deaths each year in the United States -- more than half are suicides and more than 10,000 are murders -- and the city of Chicago argues that its handgun ban saves 700 lives a year.

"Firearms, unlike anything in the Bill of Rights, are designed to harm and kill," James Feldman, an attorney for the city of Chicago, said as opening arguments got under way in Washington.

The five most conservative Supreme Court justices left little doubt in their initial appraisal of the case Tuesday that they agreed with McDonald's argument that he is entitled to self-defense under the constitution.

Chief Justice John Roberts, however, stressed that even if the nine judges moved to incorporate the Second Amendment into state laws, certain elements of gun control would still be up to local legislators to enforce.

The Supreme Court's ruling on the Chicago case could build on a landmark June 2008 decision that struck down a handgun ban in the city of Washington, which is not a state and operates under federal law.

That decision, greeted with fury by opponents of gun ownership in poor urban areas that see daily gun-related violence, was the first time the top court had ruled that US citizens had a legal right to own guns for self-defense.

Local regulations have increasingly been at the forefront in the battle over gun control in the United States, where some 200 million firearms are in circulation in a country with a total population of 300 million.

Arguing against looser controls, Dennis Henigan of the advocacy group Brady Campaign insisted that even if the court applies the Second Amendment right to have "a gun at home for self-defense to the states and localities, that right should not be inconsistent with a reasonable gun regulation."

"Even if the court rules that there is a constitutional right to possess it, that doesn't mean there is a constitutional right to carry one in the street," Henigan said.

The Second Amendment speaks only of the right to bear arms in the context of a "well-regulated militia," but has evolved for some people over the past two centuries into something of a birth right to individual gun ownership.

While Obama has not moved to curb gun freedoms, arms sales have shot up since his election in 2008 and conservatives deeply suspicious of his intentions have stepped up efforts to promote them.

The United States has seen continual gun violence in recent years.

In February, a woman biology professor killed three staff members at an Alabama university; a month earlier, eight people were killed in another Virginia shooting.

In Virginia, the legislature is on track to legalize the carrying of guns in bars and to drop restrictions that residents can only buy one firearm a month.

Such measures can pass due to last year's election of Republican Governor Bob McDonnell. His Democratic predecessor, Tim Kaine, supported tighter gun rules after the 2007 massacre of 32 people at Virginia Tech University.

Among other states, Tennessee last year approved a law allowing the carrying of guns in establishments serving alcohol and Arizona is looking at measures to allow arms on university campuses and without licenses.

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