D.C. Appeals Handgun Ruling
posted 6:17 pm Tue September 04, 2007 - Washington
In announcing the appeal, Mayor Adrian M. Fenty said loosened restrictions would only bring more guns to the city.
"The bottom line is we do not need more guns in this city," Fenty said at a news conference on the steps of the police department's headquarters. "The only possible outcome to more guns is more violence."
Alan Gura, a lawyer for the D.C. residents who challenged the ban, said he was "delighted" the city had asked the Supreme Court to review the decision.
"We're happy that the Supreme Court has a chance to vindicate the Second Amendment rights of all Americans, not just D.C. residents," he said.
A federal appeals court panel ruled in March that the district's broad gun law is unconstitutional, and city officials announced in July that they would take the case to the Supreme Court.
Washington's gun law bars residents from keeping handguns in their homes and prohibits the carrying of a gun without a license. Registered firearms such as rifles and shotguns must be kept unloaded and disassembled or fitted with trigger locks.
The law remains in effect during the appeals process, but if the Supreme Court refuses to take the case, the lower court ruling overturning the city law would go into effect, forcing D.C. to rewrite its gun laws.
However, Fenty noted that the appeals court ruling deals specifically with the issue of guns in the home, so it would not impact the ban against private citizens carrying handguns on the street.
D.C. Attorney General Linda Singer said she expected the Supreme Court to indicate whether it will take the case by early November and that a ruling would be expected in June.
Nelson Lund, a law professor at George Mason University who takes the view that the Second Amendment protects individual gun ownership, said he believes the court will take the case even though it has refused to rule on other gun control laws in the past.
Lund said the court is likely to take it up now because the appeals circuits have had diverging views of the issue and because the D.C. case is the first time a federal court has struck down a gun control measure on Second Amendment grounds.
The district argues that the Second Amendment prohibits only federal interference in the rights of states to maintain citizen militias, but does not cover the ability of citizens to own hand guns privately for other purposes. It argues that states have the right to regulate gun ownership and that the district should be treated like a state.
Singer said that handguns are "easily concealable and uniquely dangerous" and that it is reasonable to ask residents who want to keep firearms at home to choose a different type of weapon.
The ruling by the appeals court stemmed from a lawsuit by six D.C. residents who wanted to keep handguns in their home. The appeals panel found that only one of the six had standing to sue because he was the only one who had attempted to register his gun.
That plaintiff, Dick Heller, is a private security guard who is licensed by the D.C. government to carry a gun on the job.
"But when he goes home at night, he's not allowed to have it," Gura, the lawyer, said.
Latest Comment on D.C. Appeals Handgun Ruling
bobesox
11:45 am on 09/05/07
they should keep the ban on guns. In the majority of the murders, the victim is rarely a law abiding citizen.
I do not see how allowing d.c. residents to own guns can help in the mulitple murders occuring in the District And until you can prove that allowing guns will benefit the city, I will remain against allowing guns in d.c. Show us how allowing a law abiding citizen to own a gun could have changed the outcome of the multiple murders occuring monthly. I stand for keeping the guns banned.
And for those who dont understand. I am aware of the ban on guns in DC. Although I now reside in MD, I lived in DC for over 20 yrs. My family never owned a gun and we were never victimized by guns. And I still do not own a gun nor do i live in fear.
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