The US Supreme Court will address gun control yesterday for the first time in nearly 10 years with a majority of justices seen as supporting the rights of people who own firearms.

In a country in which guns kill nearly 40,000 people every year, the nine-member court will again look at a case involving the Second Amendment to the US Constitution, which enshrines “the right of the people to keep and bear arms.”

The court ruled in a landmark decision in 2008 that the amendment guaranteed what it called an individual right to own a gun, and struck down a law that banned handguns. In 2010, it said this decision applied both at the state and federal level.

“But it has not said very much about how courts should evaluate the constitutionality of other gun laws, such as restrictions on assault weapons, high capacity magazines, and concealed carrying,” said Joseph Blocher, a professor of law at Duke University in North Carolina.