Guns anywhere.

• Author: Doherty, Brian
• Position: D.C. carry ban killed - Brief article

In July, a federal court struck down the District of Columbia's ban on carrying legal weapons in public. This was a direct consequence of the Supreme Court's 2008 Heller decision, which overturned D.C.'s total ban on a usable firearm in the home.

In the new case, Palmer v. D.C., Judge Frederick J. Scullin Jr. declared that under Heller, "there is no longer any basis on which this Court can conclude that the District of Columbia's total ban on the public carrying of ready-to-use handguns outside the home is constitutional under any level of scrutiny." Heller recognized self-defense as a core principle underlying the Second Amendment, and self-defense does not stop at one's front door.

D.C. was given a 90-day stay on the order to allow it to come up...