361 Views
0 Shares

DC Continues to Try (and Fail) to Strip Gun Rights

Advertisement
Advertisement

Washington, D.C., is one of the most strict on gun laws. They don’t follow the same gun laws as most other states. They can and have implemented their own regulations. D.C. law requires gun owners to prove they have a “good reason to fear injury” or another “proper reason,” such as a job that requires carrying large amounts of cash or valuables, in order to get a concealed carry permit.

In a 2-1 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ordered lower courts to issue permanent injunctions blocking enforcement of a law that prevents most firearms owners from carrying concealed handguns in public in the nation’s capital. The federal appeals panel ruled that the restriction is unconstitutional. According to this ruling, the city government cannot demand citizens prove a “good reason” before being issued permits.

City officials said they are considering an appeal. Naturally, gun rights supports view the ruling as a major step toward a Supreme Court victory if the highest court accepts the lower court decision.

“At the Second Amendment’s core lies the right of responsible citizens to carry firearms for personal self-defense beyond the home, subject to longstanding restrictions,” Judge Thomas B. Griffith wrote in the majority opinion. “These traditional limits include, for instance, licensing requirements, but not bans on carrying in urban areas like D.C. or bans on carrying absent a special need for self-defense.”

There are other challenges in motion to D.C.’s strict gun laws. The Supreme Court struck down the city’s near total ban on firearms possession in 2008, and a federal court blocked an effort to ban the carrying of firearms in public in 2014.

Comments:

Advertisement
Advertisement