A federal judge ruled on Tuesday that people seeking a permit to carry concealed firearms in the U.S. capital no longer need to provide “good reason” for doing so.
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The ruling Tuesday clashes with a ruling from U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, who sided with the city in a separate dispute and declined to issue a preliminary injunction.
Although he completed the training required by the Metropolitan Police Department to carry a gun outside the home and last August applied for one of the city’s new but elusive concealed carry permits out of a desire for self-defense, he was turned down in October because he did not “demonstrate a good reason to fear injury” or “demonstrate a proper reason” requirement to obtain a permit despite the fact his wife had been robbed on a public street and he found shell casings in front of his home.
District gun owner Matthew Grace and gun rights group Pink Pistols sued a year ago, arguing that the D.C. law violates the right to bear arms for self-protection, including against nonspecific or unexpected threats.
“Because the right to bear arms includes the right to carry firearms for self-defense both in and outside the home, I find that the District’s “good reason” requirement likely places an unconstitutional burden on this right”, Judge Leon wrote in a 46-page opinion that granted a preliminary injunction while the case plays out in court. Yesterday, I discussed the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals’ ruling that asserted the selling of firearms is protected under the Second Amendment.
Leon added that the law is “inconsistent with the individual right to bear arms under the Second Amendment”, according to DCist.
In his 46-page ruling, Judge Richard J. Leon wrote that “law-abiding responsible citizens to carry arms in public for the goal of self-defense does indeed lie at the core of the Second Amendment.” .
Even if the Second Amendment is implicated, the District said, the right to carry a gun for self-defense in a city is so peripheral to the amendment’s goal that it is not appropriate to apply “strict scrutiny”-a standard that requires the government to rebut the presumption that the challenged law is unconstitutional”. “That’s not how the Constitution works in this country”.
As for the city, it is weighing options, but standing by its practice and will both request a stay on Leon’s order and an appeal.
In March, Kollar-Kotelly refused to block the District’s law, which the capital imposed after losing a legal battle in which US District Judge Frederick J. Scullin Jr overturned its full gun ban in July of 2014.
Winkler said that while US appeals courts have split, most have ruled in favor of “may-issue” discretionary laws, including the Courts of Appeals for the 2nd and 4th circuits.
The judge cited the District’s strong interest “in reducing risks posed to members of the public” by the carrying of concealed weapons, “which poses a potential risk to others – carriers and non-carriers alike – far greater than the risk of possessing a handgun within the home”.
The fate of D.C.’s concealed-carry law is by no means clear.
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Leon’s approach is a “real outlier”, said Adam Skaggs, senior counsel for Everytown for Gun Safety, an advocacy group that filed a brief in support of the District.
