D.C. Continues Its Slow Retreat in its War on Guns

Brian Doherty | June 22, 2009

Yet another post-Heller victory for the Second Amendment out of the District of Columbia, as reported in the Washington Post:

The D.C. government released emergency regulations yesterday that greatly expand the models of handguns that District residents can own, a shift designed to stave off another lawsuit over its compliance with the Second Amendment.

The new regulations...will allow residents to legally obtain at least 1,000 additional types and models of handguns....In addition to permitting guns in the District that are legal in California, the city will also allow residents to apply to register handguns that are permissible in Massachusetts and Maryland.

D.C. was not acting out of just an increasingly sensible vision of what the Second Amendment, and the Second Amendment-affirming Heller case from last year, means. They are folding because they were threatened with a lawsuit, spearhearded by winning Heller counsel Alan Gura and including original Heller plaintiff Tracey Hanson.

I first wrote about that lawsuit, and a number of other encouraging post-Heller legal actions and results, back in May. My new(ish) book Gun Control on Trial has the full story of that historic case, and it was excerpted in Reason magazine.