Anxious District officials prepared Wednesday to respond if the city’s handgun ban is struck down when the U.S. Supreme Court issues its decision in a case challenging that ban, a ruling the court signaled will come today.
D.C. Council Chairman Vincent Gray said the high court was not likely to come down on the District’s side in D.C. v. Heller. But the inability to take any action in advance of the decision makes the waiting more difficult.
“There’s so many permutations and scenarios,” Gray said. “We can’t possibly map out every scenario as to how we’ll move forward.”
Gray is slated to join Mayor Adrian Fenty on the steps of the Wilson Building at noon today for a news conference to react to the ruling.
“Whatever the court decides, we certainly respect the will of the court,” the mayor said Tuesday.
In the high court’s first consideration of a gun control case in 70 years, justices are due to announce whether the District’s virtual ban on handguns violates the Second Amendment. Gun rights and gun control advocates are looking to the court to answer the age-old question: Is the right to bear arms reserved for individuals or militias? And how far can a statego to regulate that right?
Both sides have suffered through days of no decisions in this last week of the court’s session.
“It’s hard to know whether the delay is because the court hasn’t resolved all the issues … whether there’s some last-minute things to be ironed out, or whether it’s just making sure they’re out of town when the decision comes down,” said Robert Levy of the Cato Institute, who brought the Heller lawsuit.
Ward 4 Councilwoman Muriel Bowser said a decision against the District means the council will have to take up a slew of “practical, nitty-gritty-type things,” like firearm training and gun shop zoning.
“If that is hoisted upon us,” Bowser said, “we’ll have to be able to put in regulations about those kinds of things.”
Most District officials have said privately that they expect the court to strike down the city’s ban. Fenty’s team has planned for that contingency, though its next steps remain tightly guarded secrets.
“It’s painful,” Ward 1 Councilman Jim Graham said of the wait for a ruling. “We’re just anxious to see it.”
Examiner Staff Writer Bill Myers contributed to this report.
