Firearms Owners Against Crime
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
A federal appeals court has ordered a stay of a judge’s ruling in a challenge to the District’s gun laws.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia temporarily blocked a decision made last month by U.S. District Judge Frederick J. Scullin Jr. that stopped the District from enforcing a key provision of its gun laws. That provision requires a person to state a “good reason” for carrying a weapon in order to obtain a permit from police.
The stay, granted late Friday, is a minor victory for the District in the ongoing court battle over its gun laws.
Scullin ruled last year that the District’s long-standing ban on carrying firearms in public was unconstitutional. As a result, the D.C. Council reworked the law in September, but included a condition — known as the “good reason/proper reason” requirement — for obtaining a permit. Similar provisions exist in Maryland, New York and New Jersey.
Last month, Scullin said in a 23-page opinion that the condition “impinges on Plaintiffs’ Second Amendment right to bear arms,” because it fails to target dangerous people or specify how or where individuals carry weapons.
[Federal judge again rules key part of new D.C. gun law unconstitutional]