Sangamon
County Rifle Association
Right Reason on Second Amendment Rights
Springfield, Illinois
Right Reason on Second Amendment Rights
Springfield, Illinois
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Sangamon
County Rifle Association
Right Reason on Second Amendment Rights Springfield, Illinois |
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 D.C.
defies Supreme Court
Commentary by Jim Butler, President, SCRA September 2008 GunNews In spite of the Supreme Court ruling striking down Washington, D.C.'s gun ban, the D.C. council is trying their best to ignore Heller. In open defiance of the Supreme Court ruling, they have passed an "emergency" measure that would retain the same provisions ruled unconstitutional. The city council has even changed retained their unique "definition" of a machine gun. Totally ridiculous! Their tortured definition is contrary to the ordinary usage of those terms in the English language and in the laws of the United States. Semiautomatic handguns fire one shot per trigger pull and represent 73 percent of the 1,403,329 handguns manufactured in the United States in 2006, latest figures available. I'll bet you never thought of your .22 caliber Ruger pistol as a machine gun. According to the Washington, D.C. bureaucrats, it is. Their creative definition serves to ban an entire class of handguns in Washington, D.C. - a class of handguns commonly used for personal defense in the rest of the nation, in direct disregard for the Heller decision. D.C. officials have stated that only revolvers and single shot handguns are eligible for registration in that city. Even then, of course, there will be a fresh blizzard of red tape to discourage registrations. Amazingly, Dick Heller, the plaintiff in Washington D.C. v. Heller case was turned down by police when he tried to register his semiautomatic pistol after the Supreme Court ruling. He was told by the police that any "bottom loading" semiautomatic pistol was a machine gun. The exact words of the Supreme Court historical ruling were, "the District must permit him (Heller) to register his handgun and must issue him a license to carry it in the home." The order doesn't say "a handgun", it says "his handgun". Washington, D.C. officials ignored that order. So Mr. Heller did what any red-blooded American denied his Constitutional Rights would do -- he along with two other Washington, D.C. residents sued the city for a second time. They are alleging that the District's new registration system is burdensome and continues to unlawfully outlaw most semiautomatic pistols - the same type commonly carried by police officers and used by millions of Americans for personal defense. Under the new "emergency" law the city says that legally registered revolvers be kept unloaded and either disassembled or secured with trigger locks, unless the owner reasonably fears immediate harm by an intruder in the home. These city officials must be living in some kind of a dream world as those of us who have served in law enforcement can tell you. Home invaders entering your home aren't going to have trigger locks on their guns, and they're not going to wait while you take yours off. This rule flouts both common sense and the Supreme Court decision. It serves to make it virtually impossible for a gun owner to legally use a firearm in self-defense, said Heller's attorney, Stephen F. Halbrook. He's exactly right. The Supreme Court in the Washington, D.C . v. Heller ruling said, "the requirements that any lawful firearm in the home be disassembled or bound by a trigger lock makes it impossible for citizens to use arms for the core lawful purpose of self-defense and is hence unconstitutional." It makes me wonder if any Washington, D.C. bureaucrats even bothered to read the Supreme Court ruling. Apparently not. D.C.'s new "emergency" law sounds like a trial lawyers dream come true. As with the First Amendment, it matters not whether we live in the state of Illinois or the District of Columbia. We are protected by the same Bill of Rights. It is time for the D.C. council to stop thumbing it's nose at the Constitution and defying a clear Supreme Court order by largely maintaining its draconian 32 year old gun ban that didn't work anyway and, denied its citizens their constitutional right to defend themselves. Return to SCRA Home Page |