District leaders and police said Friday’s court decision to overturn the city’s 30-year handgun ban will make the streets of the nation’s capital more dangerous.
Mayor Adrian Fenty said he was outraged by the decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, the first time that a federal appeals court has struck down a handgun law based on the Second Amendment.
The judges also threw out the District’s requirement that registered firearms be kept unloaded, disassembled and under trigger lock.
“I am strongly opposed to the court’s decision,” Fenty said. “District residents deserve every protection afforded to them under District law.”
The District has banned handgun ownership since 1976. In 2004, a lower-court judge told six D.C. residents that they did not have a constitutional right to own handguns.
But in a 2-1 decision, the judges held that protections of the Second Amendment “are not limited to militia service, nor is an individual’s enjoyment of the right contingent” on enrollment in a militia.
“The District’s definition of the militia is just too narrow,” Judge Laurence Silberman wrote for the majority Friday. “There are too many instances of ‘bear arms’ indicating private use to conclude that the drafters intended only a military sense.”
Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president of the National Rifle Association, said the decision gives the District “a crack in the door to join the rest of the country in full constitutional freedom.”
D.C. Council Member Phil Mendelson said the ruling was made by activist, conservative judges and called their decision “frightening.” He has scheduled a March 21 hearing on reducing gun violence, citing D.C. police statistics showing that 267 gun-involved robberies and assaults were reported during the first six weeks of 2007, compared with 181 in the same period last year, a nearly 50 percent increase.
Deputy Police Chief Winston Robinson said the appeals court decision will “create a hazardous situation,” especially for children.
“More than likely, it’ll put more guns in the hands of our youth,” Robinson said.
While the district moves to petition the full Court of Appeals for a rehearing, the District’s handgun ban will remain in effect, at least until April 9.
The District could appeal to the Supreme Court. If the dispute makes it there, it would be the first case in almost 70 years to address the Second Amendment’s scope.
Information from the Associated Press was used in this story.
