D.C. drops appeal of court's concealed carry ruling :: 04/04/2015

Washington, D.C., will stop trying to appeal a court decision that had struck down the city’s unconstitutional ban on the concealed carry of handguns. That’s according to Karl Racine, the attorney general for municipality.

Racine said the city will instead attempt to bolster the controversial law its leaders passed as a replacement for the one struck down by the court last year. Critics of the new law believe it, too, is unconstitutional because of the numerous constraints it places on residents who seek to obtain a concealed carry permit.

The city formerly had banned handguns outright, but a federal court found that ban unconstitutional and ordered the city to craft a new law that would afford Washington residents a means of legally possessing handguns in public.

City leaders responded with a “may issue” permitting ordinance that burdens the applicant with the task of proving to police that he has a demonstrable need to defend himself. Additionally, under the ordinance, the city makes no other provision for justifying to the government the “need” to possess a handgun other than to satisfy a right to self-defense.

Very few people have obtained a concealed carry permit under the new law, and its most vocal critics continue to draw attention to ways in which the city appears to be stonewalling the permitting process.

Nevertheless, the city is pinning its hopes for litigation-free gun policy on its new ordinance. “We need to focus our energies not on litigating old laws, but defending new ones that our leaders enacted in good faith to comply with court rulings while still protecting public safety,” Racine said in a statement.

The new law is already being challenged in a pair of lawsuits, one of which accuses the city of failing to comply with the order U.S. District Judge Frederick Scullin handed down in July of last year.

http://personalliberty.com/d-c-drops-appeal-of-courts-concealed-carry-ruling/