Federal Appeals Court Ruling Undermines Rationale for Pending NRA-Backed D.C. Gun Bill

October 4, 2011

WASHINGTON, DC -- Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) said that today's U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruling upholding the constitutionality of the District of Columbia's prohibition of assault weapons, prohibition of magazines that hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition, and basic registration requirements for handguns undermines much of the rationale for the pending National Rifle Association (NRA)-backed D.C. gun bill (H.R. 645), which has 161 House cosponsors. After the Supreme Court's 2008 District of Columbia v. Heller decision, the D.C. Council revised the city's gun laws. Despite a March 2010 federal district court ruling upholding the constitutionality of D.C.'s revised gun laws, the NRA continued to insist that its D.C. gun bill be attached to the D.C. House Voting Rights Act (DCVRA), which forced the congresswoman to pull the DCVRA from the House floor in April 2010.

The D.C. Gun bill would not only eliminate the District's gun laws, but would also prohibit D.C. residential and commercial property owners from barring tenants from having guns on their property, bar D.C. from prohibiting guns in District owned or controlled buildings and structures that do not have certain security measures in place, which could include elementary schools and recreation centers, and bar D.C. from preventing private tenants of city owned or controlled buildings and structures from bringing guns into them, regardless of the security measures in place.

The Supreme Court's Second Amendment decisions have made clear that governments may impose limits on an individual's right to own and possess firearms. In the 2008 Heller decision, the Supreme Court said, the Second Amendment does not give people the right "to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose…."In McDonald, the court said, "We made it clear in Heller that our holding did not cast doubt on such longstanding regulatory measures as ‘prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill', ‘laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings, or laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of firearms.' We repeat those assurances here."

The court did remand some of D.C.'s handgun registration requirements and all of its long-gun registration requirements back to the district court, so that the parties can provide more factual evidence on those requirements.

The pending D.C gun bill:

1.Permits the carrying of guns in public.
2.Repeals D.C.'s ban on large capacity ammunition feeding devices (i.e., magazines that can hold more than 10 rounds).
3.Repeals D.C.'s ban on assault weapons, including .50 caliber rifles.
4.Prohibits residential and commercial property owners from barring tenants from having guns on their property.
5.Bars D.C. from prohibiting guns in District owned or controlled buildings and structures that do not have certain security measures in place, which could include elementary schools and recreation centers, and D.C. cannot prevent private tenants of city owned or controlled buildings and structures from bringing guns into them, regardless of the security measures in
6.Repeals D.C.'s categories of prohibited possessors; for example, a person who was voluntarily committed to a mental institution could buy a gun.
7.Prevents D.C. from making changes to its gun laws in the future.
8.Repeals D.C.'s gun registration requirements.
9.Repeals D.C.'s limitation on the number of handguns that can be purchased per month.
10.Repeals D.C.'s 10-day waiting period to buy handguns orThere would only be a 48-hour waiting period for handguns.
11.Repeals D.C.'s gun training requirements.
12.Repeals D.C.'s design safety standards for handguns.
13.Repeals D.C.'s requirement of microstamping for semiautomatic handguns.
14.Repeals D.C.'s requirement of ballistics testing for handguns.
15.Reduces penalties if a child is injured by a negligently stored gun.

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