So, you’ve probably heard by now that a US Appeals Court has struck down the DC gun ban. I live outside of DC, so this ban hasn’t directly affected me and the change really doesn’t affect me right now either, as I don’t own a firearm at the present time.
Now, the Mayor has indicated he is going to appeal the decision, AND “said the city will vigorously enforce its handgun law” as he said the ruling “only addressed handgun possession in the home, not whether the city can regulate handguns elsewhere” and frankly, I’m waiting for some form of legal injunction to effectively nullify the court’s decision for the time being.
So, obviously we’ve not seen the end of this just yet. What I find amusing & somewhat annoying is how CNN has been reporting it, with comments along these lines: “District residents are doing something this weekend that they haven’t been able to do in 30 years - have a gun.”
OK, let’s think about this. If you’re a law abiding DC resident, you don’t have a handgun. Given the gun ban, I’m pretty sure that no one has been able to set up shop in DC since Friday afternoon to sell firearms. So, unless every DC resident that wanted a gun came out to Virginia and bought one this weekend (and I’m not even sure that Virginia shops can sell to DC residents, regardless of this court ruling), then really - who is actually now walking around with a gun that wasn’t on Friday morning?
Sorry CNN, but I don’t think evey DC resident now has a gun.
March 11th, 2007 - 6:03 pm
Plus, I read that the ruling doesn’t even go into effect for 30 days, so they couldn’t legally have a gun in their home this weekend anyway.
March 11th, 2007 - 6:05 pm
Sure, but taking that into account takes all the fun out of pretending that DC is now going wild with gunslingers.
March 11th, 2007 - 7:57 pm
Indeed–the ban is still in effect while they appeal–though the common thought is that the SCOTUS won’t touch it, as they tend to avoid 2A cases.
Also, the decision was quite clear in that it doesn’t apply to carrying outside the home or transporting in a vehicle–which makes one wonder how one would get a gun -to- one’s household for legal possession. (I don’t know what the current law says about transporting weapons–perhaps in a locked case in the trunk, with the ammo locked separately, like airline travel with a checked gun.)
March 11th, 2007 - 7:58 pm
Yeah, the whole thing really is just bringing the issue back into the courts for now and it’s going to be a while before anything actually changes - but at least it’s being addressed.