After the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled that the District’s restrictive handgun laws were unconstitutional in early March, Mayor Adrian Fenty was quick to promise a swift appeal. But when the full court declined to rehear the case two months later, thus forcing a potential showdown in the U.S. Supreme Court, Fenty was forced to slam on the brakes. Since then, he and his legal team have grappled with a vexing question — whether to appeal or not.

According to an article today in the Washington Times, Fenty is using up the full 90 days he has to make the call. Any final decision will have to be made by the first week in August.

It’s not an envious position to be in. Should Fenty choose to appeal, he runs the risk of having the court’s newly-empowered conservative majority declare for the first time that gun ownership is an individual, not a collective, right — thus throwing into question gun regulations across the country. Should he not appeal, the D.C. Council would have to rush back into session to craft a new law covering the ownership of handguns, effectively upending a three-decade-old prohibition. Everyone from big-city mayors to the NRA is pushing one way or another, not to mention the District’s own residents.

Fenty said a decision would be coming “within the next week.”