A federal judge in Washington, D.C., has issued a preliminary injunction that halts enforcement of the city’s new concealed carry policy.
In the 46-page memorandum opinion Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon called the new policy that requires concealed carry permit applicants to state “good reason” to carry a weapon an “unconstitutional burden.”
The injunction will be in force pending further litigation, though the ruling clashes with a ruling from U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, who sided with the city. In that March decision, Kollar-Kotelly did not issue preliminary injunction.
Leon granted a preliminary injunction that now “enjoins the District of Columbia from denying concealed carry licenses to applicants to meet all eligibility requirements other than the ‘good reason’ requirement.”
The lawsuit was brought by plaintiff Matthew Grace and the gun-advocacy group Pink Pistols.
The new concealed carry policy was put in place by the District after a federal judge in July, 2014 declared the city’s ban on carrying a gun in public unconstitutional. D.C. joins Maryland and New York as having some of the strictest gun laws in the country.
