DC Dragged Into the United States, Kicking & Screaming

DC Dragged Into the United States, Kicking & Screaming

The June 20, 2009 Washington Post reports that DC is slowly, fighting the whole way, joining the United States, in allowing its serfs to own handguns:

The D.C. government released emergency regulations yesterday that greatly expand the models of handguns that District residents can own, a shift designed to stave off another lawsuit over its compliance with the Second Amendment.

The new regulations, which come as the District continues to grapple with last year's Supreme Court decision that threw out the city's gun ban, will allow residents to legally obtain at least 1,000 additional types and models of handguns.

City leaders sought to play down the effects of the new regulations, but gun rights advocates said they were another boost to their efforts to undo the District's long-held restrictions on personal possession of weapons.

"We are gratified the District is recognizing their approach is unworkable and unconstitutional," said Alan Gura, who was the lead attorney in the District of Columbia v. Heller Supreme Court case. "There is now a whole new universe of guns that will now be available."

In addition to permitting guns in the District that are legal in California, the city will also allow residents to apply to register handguns that are permissible in Massachusetts and Maryland.

The new rules will give gun owners a broader array of choices when they go shopping for handguns to keep in their home. In some cases, the change could mean something as minor as what color of weapon they can purchase. In other instances, gun owners will have access to weapons with additional design features.

DC tried to use California's list of legal handguns to restrict ownership, because California now requires handguns to pass a completely unnecessary "safety" test, as a method of reducing the number of handguns sold there. Pretty clearly, DC's attempt to restrict handgun ownership using the California list was in violation of the Second Amendment, or they would not have backed down. And once the Supreme Court rules that the Second Amendment applies to the states, I suspect that California's restrictive list will also be subject to challenge.

UPDATE: Whoops! Shortly after I posted this, I got an email from Alan Gura indicating that he has already filed such a suit against California's roster law.