Next Challenge to Gun Laws Headed to D.C. Circuit

A federal appeals court in Washington will have the chance to examine the latest version of the District of Columbia's gun restrictions, in a possible test of how to apply the U.S. Supreme Court's 2008 decision in D.C. v. Heller.

Lawyers for Dick Heller, a name party in the earlier case, filed a notice Thursday that they will continue fighting in this follow-up case. They are appealing to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to reverse a March 26 decision by U.S. District Judge Ricardo Urbina. That ruling upheld new restrictions the D.C. Council passed in the wake of the 2008 decision. For example, all handguns must be submitted to D.C. police for a ballistics identification process.

Stephen Halbrook, a lawyer for Heller, said a week ago that an appeal of Urbina’s decision was likely because, he said, the judge was overly deferential toward the city. Lawyers for the District say the council worked to strike a balance between Second Amendment rights and public safety concerns.

The original Heller case, then known as Parker v. D.C., also went through the D.C. Circuit. In a March 2007 decision, Senior Judge Laurence Silberman wrote that Heller had standing to challenge the District’s gun laws and that the laws in place at the time were unconstitutional. Heller, of course, won before the Supreme Court in a decision that said the Second Amendment protects an individual right to bear arms.

Comments

[Henry Bowman]

"Lawyers for the District say the council worked to strike a balance between Second Amendment rights and public safety concerns."

Totally without (you will notice) having to in an way support their unspoken assumption that gun restrictions increase public safety... when historical data all but smacks you in the face with the proof that it does precisely the opposite.

[Most Citizens]

Unlike Preacher1 we have faith in the court system. The term 'activist judge' is just a label for whomever issues an opinion that the writer doesn't agree with.

[Preacher1]

On the subject of Federal activist judges who follow their own whim -instead of the Constitution, why has no Court questioned the fact that Obama has not yet presented his real birth certificate? Why did Congress force Senator McCain to prove his American birth -but has not required this of Obama?

[Preacher1]

What is being ignored by these activist judges who are imposing their will and prejudices over the United States Constitution is that the Second Amendment confers a RIGHT -NOT a privilege. Every restrictive gun law ever passed -except those restricting guns from criminally dangerous people- is un-Constitutional on its face. What is the point of having a Federal court that will not obey the Constitution?