The plaintiff whose historic Supreme Court case overturned the District’s ban on handguns will try again to register his revolver this morning after police turned him away for not having the weapon with him.
Dick Heller showed up on the steps of police headquarters at 6:30 a.m. Thursday to become the first resident in 32 years to legally own a handgun. Instead, he picked up a packet to register one of the two handguns that he owns and keeps at a friend’s home in Maryland.
Police prepared for lines of D.C. residents eager to register their handguns Thursday, but the throngs never materialized. Only one resident brought a weapon to register. It was turned over to police for ballistics tests. Authorities are conducting background checks on those seeking registration, a process that will take several weeks, police said.
Father and son Paul and Gerald Glover were two of the 15 residents who obtained registration forms Thursday.
“This is a day that I never thought I’d see in D.C.,” said the elder Glover, 74, a Marine Corps veteran of the Korean War and a former District housing official who has lived here all his life. He and his son both said they wanted to buy handguns to protect themselves.
Like Heller, the Glovers were irked by the city’s insistence on continuing to ban semiautomatic handguns, weapons that they say are becoming obsolete. The ban violates the spirit of last month’s Supreme Court decision defending the constitutional right to bear arms, they said.
“I don’t know why they would assume that D.C. residents are not responsible citizens,” said Gerald Glover, 46, an insurance salesman. “We are not savage animals. We’re civilized like everyone else.”
Gun rights advocates are expected to challenge the semiautomatic ban.
“The semiautomatic ban is very controversial. It’s clearly not constitutional,” said Heller’s attorney, Alan Gura. “I am sure that if the city doesn’t repeal it or Congress doesn’t repeal it, then courts will get involved.”
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
