RICHMOND -- Virginia will join other states in urging the U.S. Supreme Court to decide that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual right to own firearms, Attorney General Bob McDonnell said Tuesday.

McDonnell said Virginia will join a multistate brief to be filed in a case challenging the District of Columbia's ban on personal handgun ownership. The case of District of Columbia v. Heller, to be decided next year, will determine whether the constitutional right to keep and bear arms is an individual or collective right. The outcome could have far-reaching effects on gun control laws in the country.

"This is a very important case, perhaps the most important case in American history regarding the Second Amendment, because the question of whether it's an individual right or a collective right of the state has never been fully decided by the United States Supreme Court," McDonnell said in a telephone conference call.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled that the city's handgun ban violates the Second Amendment and that gun ownership is an individual right. The city appealed, and attorneys on both sides of District of Columbia v. Heller urged the Supreme Court to take the case and establish a precedent on the Second Amendment.

The court will hear arguments on the case in March. A ruling is expected by June.

McDonnell said the framers of the U.S. Constitution intended the Bill of Rights -- including the Second Amendment -- "to protect individual liberties of the people from the government."

He said Virginia will join in a friend of the court brief being drafted by Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott to press that point. "It's our view that Virginia has always been a pretty good defender of Second Amendment rights," said McDonnell, a Republican and likely 2009 gubernatorial candidate.

If the court rules in favor of the D.C. gun ban, McDonnell said, "it would open the doors for much broader and much more vast restrictions that would be permissible on firearms."

Gun controls already on the books in Virginia -- including a law limiting handgun purchases to one per month -- should not be affected if the Supreme Court rules against the gun ban, McDonnell said. But he cautioned that his office has not done "a thorough analysis" to assess the potential effect on existing state laws.

While McDonnell has taken a stand on the state's behalf, Gov. Tim Kaine, a Democrat, has not waded into the debate. Kaine spokesman Gordon Hickey said the governor has not stated a position on the Supreme Court case, but recognizes McDonnell's right to weigh in on the matter.

"The governor generally supports Second Amendment rights, but that support doesn't exclude reasonable controls," Hickey said.

Kaine said earlier this month that he will push legislators to close a loophole in state law that exempts private gun sellers from having to check buyers' criminal records. A state panel that investigated the Virginia Tech shootings recommended closing the so-called "gun show loophole."

The Tech review panel also called for clarification of the authority colleges have to prohibit guns on campus. McDonnell said the law allows the colleges to set their own policies. Competing proposals to strengthen and relax those restrictions are likely to surface in the upcoming legislative session, he noted.

"I think there will be a fair debate on that in the General Assembly," McDonnell said.