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The District cannot enforce its strict concealed-carry gun law because it violates the Second Amendment, a federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday.
The law that requires people to have a “good reason” in order to get a permit from police to carry concealed handguns was rejected by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on a 2-1 decision.
“The good reason law leaves each D.C. resident some remote chance of one day carrying in self-defense, but that isn’t the question,” writes Judge Thomas B. Griffith in his decision, joined by Judge Stephen F. Williams. “The Second Amendment doesn’t secure a right to have some chance at self-defense… At a minimum the Amendment’s core must protect carrying given the risks and needs typical of law-abiding citizens. That is a right that most D.C. residents can never exercise, by the law’s very design.”
This decision is the latest of many judicial rulings targeting D.C. gun laws—the “good reason” standard is itself a response to a ruling in 2014 that required the city to determine where licensed owners could carry their handguns in public. D.C.’s handgun ban was overturned by the Supreme Court in 2008, a decision that guaranteed the right of individuals to possess and carry firearms.
In her dissent, Judge Karen L. Henderson writes that “the ‘core’ Second Amendment right does not extend beyond the home” and the law reflects D.C.’s special security concerns as the nation’s capital.
The law requires that residents show “good reason to fear injury to his or her person or property” to receive a license. It was previously blocked by one federal court judge in May 2016, a decision stayed by the U.S. Court of Appeals the following month.
In the 10 days after it was blocked, D.C. Police received 85 concealed carry permit applications, compared to 61 in the six previous months, according to the Washington Times.
“The District of Columbia’s ‘good reason’ requirement for concealed-carry permits is a common-sense gun regulation, and four federal appeals courts have rejected challenges to similar laws in other states,” said D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine in a statement. (New Jersey, New York, and Maryland have similar “good reason” laws.) “As we consider seeking review of today’s 2-1 decision before the entire D.C. Circuit, the ‘good reason’ requirement remains in effect.”
City officials now have 30 days to decide whether they want to appeal for the entire bench of D.C. Circuit judges to hear the case. If the court does not agree to the en banc hearing, the law will be implemented a week later.
“I strongly disagree with the Court’s majority opinion,” said D.C. Council Judiciary and Public Safety Committee Chair Charles Allen in a statement. “The District of Columbia uniquely faces many security and urban public safety challenges, and we have crafted our laws in a way that respects the rights of District residents while protecting public safety.” He added that he supported Racine appealing the ruling to the full court.
For now, though, “good reason” is still the law of the land. “At this time, the D.C. Circuit Court’s decision does not change the status of gun permit procedures in the District of Columbia,” said the Metropolitan Police Department in a statement.
Updated with comment from Charles Allen and MPD.
“Good Reason” Decision by Rachel Kurzius on Scribd
Rachel Kurzius