WASHINGTON, DC – The District of Columbia is once again being sued over the blatantly unconstitutional licensing regime enacted by the DC council designed to keep residents from exercising their Second Amendment rights.
The lawsuit stems from a series of other litigation that overturned DC’s ban on owning handguns and a subsequent case forcing DC to recognize the word “bear” in the “keep and bear Arms” part of the Second Amendment. Unhappy with the result of those cases, the District enacted laws making it very hard for an average DC resident to buy and keep a gun in the district and nearly impossible for residents to obtain concealed carry permits.
The lawsuit, filed by Alan Gura, the lawyer who brought the previous two cases challenging DC’s unconstitional ban on handguns, says, “The Second Amendment right to bear arms includes the right to carry functional, loaded handguns in public areas for the purpose of self-defense.”
“This right, like others, is subject to some degree of regulation, but its status as a right precludes the government from regulating it out of existence or forcing individuals to prove their entitlement to its exercise.”
The concealed carry licensing regime requires that residents provide proof that they require a handgun to defend themselves, creating a licensing scheme that allows the DC government to arbitrarily deny citizens their constitutionally protected rights. Then, even if a concealed carry permit is issued, the law was crafted so that permit holders can easily run afoul of the law, which includes provisions such as no permit holder can come within 1,000ft of political officials or face arrest.
DC’s gun control scheme, much like Maryland’s, is a reflection of the racist and classist views by Democrats that no one other than the wealthy, politically connected elites should have the ability to defend themselves. It is utterly shameful that democrats continue to trot out a strategy on gun control pioneered by the Ku Klux Klan.
