Back to court: Heller v. D.C. II.

• Author: Sullum, Jacob
• Position: Citings - Armed self-defense laws

ON JUNE 26 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the District of Columbia had violated the Second Amendment by making armed self-defense in the home impractical and banning the most popular weapons used for that purpose. On July 15 the D.C. Council responded by unanimously approving a law that makes armed self-defense in the home impractical and bans the most popular weapons used for that purpose.

The revised law is so restrictive that Dick Heller, the Washingtonian who successfully challenged D.C.'s handgun ban and firearm storage requirements, has filed another federal lawsuit accusing the district of failing to comply with the Supreme Court's ruling. The new law says a gun may be unlocked and loaded only "while it is being used to protect against a reasonably perceived threat of immediate harm to a person." This provision, Heller's complaint argues, ignores "the need to keep a firearm in useable condition for defense of self and others against an unlawful, sudden, and deadly attack"

Heller also objects to the city's broad interpretation of its "machine gun" ban, according to which virtually all semiautomatic handguns, the most common self-defense weapons, are prohibited. Under D.C. law, "machine guns"...