Rep. Tim Walz, the Republicans' No. 1 congressional target in Minnesota, took yesterday's Supreme Court decision as an opportunity to remind rural Minnesota voters his strong support of gun rights.

The high court Monday ruled in McDonald v. City of Chicago that the Second Amendment's right to bear arms applies to state and local laws as well as federal statutes, two years after stripping strict Washington, D.C., gun control laws.

"This decision upholds Americans' rights under the Second Amendment no matter where they live," Walz said in a statement today. "I was proud to stand in defense of those Constitutional rights with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle."

Walz, who has long supported gun rights, was part of a 300-member friend-of-the court brief submitted by Congress in 2009 in favor of the Second Amendment upholding gun rights.

Republicans are gunning to pick off Walz's first district seat, a rural district that stretches across southern Minnesota where gun rights play well politically.