Grace Palo and Steve Burns
WMAL.com
WASHINGTON — (WMAL) For the second time in Washington, a federal judge has ordered an injunction for the city to halt enforcement of its concealed-carry law, requiring those who apply to state a “good reason” that they would be allowed to carry a weapon in order to obtain a permit from D.C. police.
District Judge Richard Leon’s ruling effectively struck down the provision, stating the District’s gun-permitting system is likely unconstitutional.
The system was adapted by the District after its long-standing ban on carrying firearms in public was overturned at court order in 2014.
John Lott, the President of the Crime Prevention Research Center, said the law made police give out the permits arbitrarily.
“You might be able to regulate how people carry, but you can’t ban people from carrying completely,” Lott stated, “And that’s what they’ve done with the rule there.”
The city’s law, among the strictest in the nation, matches those in Maryland, New Jersey and New York that have been upheld by federal appeals courts elsewhere.
Office of the Attorney General’s Office Spokesperson Rob Marus said they are still deciding on an appeal and are going to ask for a stay so that the law can still be enforced.
“This is a perfectly constitutional requirement. It is similar to the requirement that federal appeals courts in other parts of the country have upheld,” Marus said.
The case was brought by plaintiff Matthew Grace and the libertarian gun-rights group Pink Pistols.
“I find that plaintiffs have demonstrated a substantial likelihood of success on the merits of their claim that the District’s ‘good reason’ requirement is unconstitutional,” Leon wrote.
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