Local residents, businesspeople, law enforcement and legislators had a favorable reaction to Monday’s ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that extended citizens' right to own guns in their homes for self-defense.

At Bizarre Guns on Oddie Boulevard, Iraq war veteran, gun salesman and Sparks resident Glenn Lemon said he was pleased with the ruling.

“It’s a good thing because everyone should have the liberty to protect themselves in their own home,” Lemon said. “Government should not be able to tell you you can’t protect your home and everyone in it.”

Kevin Roth, owner/operator of Arms to Bear mobile gun range, said the ruling will have less of an effect on the gun regulations imposed by cities in northern Nevada than it will in the southern part of the state.

“North Las Vegas, Las Vegas, Henderson all have gun laws that were grandfathered in,” said Roth, who is an avid hunter and sportsman and holds several special training certificates from the National Rifle Association. “They have stricter regulations — this will have a far-reaching effect on those people down there.”

Nevada’s two senators John Ensign and Harry Reid also weighed in by issuing statements in support of the ruling.

“For years, a fundamental right given to every American by our Founding Fathers and guaranteed in the Constitution has been in peril,” Ensign said in a written release. “Federal, state and local governments have passed laws that deny many law-abiding Americans their Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. Today’s Supreme Court ruling clearly upholds the intent of our Founding Fathers in stating that the Second Amendment is an individual right that trumps state and local laws that ban firearms.”

“I am pleased that the high court has taken steps in both the Heller and McDonald cases to guarantee this fundamental right,” Reid said, referring to the cases in Monday’s ruling and to an earlier case in Washington, D.C.

Washoe County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Armando Avina said the office “strongly advocates” people’s right to carry and own guns, though with an emphasis on training and safety — particularly around children.

“Here at the sheriff’s office we want people to have that protection if they need it to protect themselves in that deadly force situation,” Avina said.

Nevada law does not require gun owners to register their firearms, Avina said, though a license is required to carry a concealed weapon. In Washoe County, there are 15,872 carry a concealed weapon permits, though 4,624 of them are expired. Nevada law also allows people to carry their weapons openly, much like the characters in a John Wayne, Old West movie, Avina said.

“I don’t think we have a lot to worry about up here (in northern Nevada),” Roth said of the implications of Monday’s court ruling. “Our sheriff is very pro-Second Amendment. I don’t think it’s gonna make a whole lot of difference up here.”

The Violence Policy Center in Washington, D.C. also issued a statement Monday, saying that states with higher gun ownership rates and weaker gun laws have the highest rates of overall gun deaths. According to the release, Nevada is ranked No. 5 in the country with 31.5 percent household gun ownership and a gun death rate of 16.21 per 100,000.