Gun owners sue DC for right to carry weapons
August 7, 2009 - 3:12pm
By BRETT ZONGKER
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - The attorney who got the Supreme Court to overturn the District of Columbia's 32-year handgun ban has gone back to court to challenge regulations prohibiting gun owners from carrying their weapons in the nation's capital.
A lawsuit filed Thursday by attorney Alan Gura in federal court challenges the gun laws that the city passed in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling. Those laws allow registered guns to be kept only at home for self-defense.
"It's up to the city council if they wish to regulate carrying arms," Gura said Friday. "What they cannot do is ban all carrying by all people at all times."
Gura argues the Second Amendment's right to "bear arms" is synonymous with carrying guns and that the city must honor residents' constitutional rights. "I think they're still in denial of what happened at the Supreme Court," he said.
The city did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Of the 50 states, only Illinois and Wisconsin prohibit concealed carrying of handguns, along with D.C., according to the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence. Many states, such as neighboring Virginia, allow open carrying of guns. Some states, though, give police discretion to exclude people deemed dangerous from legally carrying such weapons.
Daniel Vice, senior attorney for the Brady Center, said allowing people to carry loaded, semiautomatic weapons in the nation's capital would endanger government facilities, many tourists and the dense population.
In the case that struck down D.C.'s handgun ban, conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia wrote that "the right secured by the Second Amendment is not unlimited," noting that courts have long held that bans on carrying concealed weapons were lawful.
Gun control advocates use this line to argue the Supreme Court's ruling was limited to keeping guns for self-defense at home.
"If the lawsuit is asking that people be allowed to openly carry loaded weapons in our nation's capital, that is a recipe for disaster," Vice said.
Three of the plaintiffs in the case against the city are licensed gun owners in D.C. who had applications rejected when they applied to carry their guns outside their homes for self-defense.
Another plaintiff from Maryland applied to carry his gun for self-defense while visiting Washington after he was stopped for speeding in the city and was charged with carrying a loaded handgun in his car. Also named in the suit is a nonproifit group called Second Amendment Foundation Inc., which is based in Washington state.
A legal scholar who follows gun issues said the Supreme Court has not definitively ruled on how far the Second Amendment extends individual gun rights. The court had little to say on the issue before the case that overturned Washington's handgun ban, said George Washington University law professor Robert J. Cottrol.
"There is perhaps a broader question of carrying (guns) in urban areas vs. other areas," he said, "though we already have experience with liberal right-to-carry laws in other urban areas _ Miami, Philadelphia and other major cities."
Gun control advocates recently defeated a proposed expansion of concealed carry rights attached to a defense bill in the Senate. They argued the recent killings of three police officers in Pittsburgh and 10 people in rural Alabama were committed by people who had permits to carry concealed weapons.
(Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
By BRETT ZONGKER
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - The attorney who got the Supreme Court to overturn the District of Columbia's 32-year handgun ban has gone back to court to challenge regulations prohibiting gun owners from carrying their weapons in the nation's capital.
A lawsuit filed Thursday by attorney Alan Gura in federal court challenges the gun laws that the city passed in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling. Those laws allow registered guns to be kept only at home for self-defense.
"It's up to the city council if they wish to regulate carrying arms," Gura said Friday. "What they cannot do is ban all carrying by all people at all times."
Gura argues the Second Amendment's right to "bear arms" is synonymous with carrying guns and that the city must honor residents' constitutional rights. "I think they're still in denial of what happened at the Supreme Court," he said.
The city did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Of the 50 states, only Illinois and Wisconsin prohibit concealed carrying of handguns, along with D.C., according to the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence. Many states, such as neighboring Virginia, allow open carrying of guns. Some states, though, give police discretion to exclude people deemed dangerous from legally carrying such weapons.
Daniel Vice, senior attorney for the Brady Center, said allowing people to carry loaded, semiautomatic weapons in the nation's capital would endanger government facilities, many tourists and the dense population.
In the case that struck down D.C.'s handgun ban, conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia wrote that "the right secured by the Second Amendment is not unlimited," noting that courts have long held that bans on carrying concealed weapons were lawful.
Gun control advocates use this line to argue the Supreme Court's ruling was limited to keeping guns for self-defense at home.
"If the lawsuit is asking that people be allowed to openly carry loaded weapons in our nation's capital, that is a recipe for disaster," Vice said.
Three of the plaintiffs in the case against the city are licensed gun owners in D.C. who had applications rejected when they applied to carry their guns outside their homes for self-defense.
Another plaintiff from Maryland applied to carry his gun for self-defense while visiting Washington after he was stopped for speeding in the city and was charged with carrying a loaded handgun in his car. Also named in the suit is a nonproifit group called Second Amendment Foundation Inc., which is based in Washington state.
A legal scholar who follows gun issues said the Supreme Court has not definitively ruled on how far the Second Amendment extends individual gun rights. The court had little to say on the issue before the case that overturned Washington's handgun ban, said George Washington University law professor Robert J. Cottrol.
"There is perhaps a broader question of carrying (guns) in urban areas vs. other areas," he said, "though we already have experience with liberal right-to-carry laws in other urban areas _ Miami, Philadelphia and other major cities."
Gun control advocates recently defeated a proposed expansion of concealed carry rights attached to a defense bill in the Senate. They argued the recent killings of three police officers in Pittsburgh and 10 people in rural Alabama were committed by people who had permits to carry concealed weapons.
(Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
Micro Sez:Tom Palmer, of Cato, is
a plaintiff in the lawsuit.
