Free Republic

A federal judge has ruled that a key provision of the District’s new gun law is likely unconstitutional, ordering D.C. police to stop requiring individuals to show “good reason” to obtain a permit to carry a firearm on the streets of the nation’s capital. In imposing a preliminary injunction pending further litigation, U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon reignited a running battle over the Second Amendment in the District and its courts where three different judges have now weighed in with varying conclusions. “The enshrinement of constitutional rights necessarily takes certain policy choices off the table,” Leon wrote in a...

On Monday, a federal judge struck down DC’s concealed carry law, calling the requirement for applicants to show “a good reason to fear injury to his or her person, which shall at a minimum require a showing of a special need for self protection distinguishable from the general community” as unconstitutional. Applicants had to document threats to their personal safety as well. Judge Frederick Scullin, who also struck down DC’s ban on carrying firearms outside of one’s home last summer, issued a preliminary injunction after two Florida residents sued over the DC’s onerous statute.