Posted by Jeff K on 3/10/2007, 7:17 am The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia on Friday overturned the city's extensive gun ban, giving gun rights advocates a major victory in their long battle over the restrictions. Six D.C. residents brought the suit against the city arguing that the gun ban, which in practice prohibited the possession of a functioning firearm, violated their Second Amendment right to "keep and bear arms." A district court dismissed the claim, ruling that the Second Amendment did not apply to individual citizens. The Court of Appeals on Friday reversed the lower court's decision, ruling that the Second Amendment does apply to individual citizens. WASHINGTON (AP) -- A federal appeals court overturned the District of Columbia's long- standing handgun ban Friday, rejecting the city's argument that the Second Amendment right to bear arms applied only to militias. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit also threw out the district's requirement that registered firearms be kept unloaded, disassembled and under trigger lock. Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president of the National Rifle Association, said the decision gives the district "a crack in the door to join the rest of the country in full constitutional freedom."
For many years the Second Admendment rights of the people in Washington to bear arms has been denyed. This is clearly a violation of the rights of the people to protect their family and it now has been corrected by the federal appeals cort but these rights should have never been denyed.
In a 2-1 decision, the judges held that the activities protected by the Second Amendment "are not limited to militia service, nor is an individual's enjoyment of the right contingent" on enrollment in a militia. Judge Karen Henderson dissented, writing that the Second Amendment does not apply to the District of Columbia because it is not a state.
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