The Department of Justice has sued Washington, D.C.’s police department – claiming the district bans firearms protected by the 2nd Amendment.
The district’s gun laws require gun owners to register them with the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department, but ban “numerous firearms” from registration, according to a release from the DOJ.
Federal officials claim this forces residents to face “wrongful arrest” for owning legally protected guns.
“Washington, D.C.’s ban on some of America’s most popular firearms is an unconstitutional infringement on the 2nd Amendment,” said Attorney General Pam Bondi in the release.
“Living in our nation’s capital should not preclude law-abiding citizens from exercising their fundamental constitutional right to keep and bear arms.”
The capital’s police currently ban “assault weapons” from registration, defined as a wide variety of semi-automatic guns.
The 2nd Amendment dictates a “well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.”
Gun restriction advocates, like the Brennan Center for Justice, claim the amendment protects the right to maintain a militia. Meanwhile, other groups, such as the Heritage Foundation, maintain that the language was intended to protect the individual right to carry firearms for self-defense.
D.C. Police Officer Richard Heller sued the district in 2003, since the laws at the time prevented him from owning a handgun and keeping it at home for self-defense. Years later, in 2008, the Supreme Court struck down the district’s law as unconstitutional.
“The District must permit him to register his handgun and must issue him a license to carry it in the home,” wrote then-Justice Antonin Scalia, according to Justia.
But today, D.C. still prevents ownership of the “very same weapons” through a “pattern and practice” of blocking registration, DOJ officials claim – placing law-abiding citizens at risk of arrest.
“This Civil Rights Division will defend American citizens from unconstitutional restrictions of commonly used firearms, in violation of their 2nd Amendment rights,” said Asst. AG for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon in the release. “The newly established 2nd Amendment Section filed this lawsuit to ensure that the very rights D.C. resident Mr. Heller secured 17 years ago are enforced today.”
The Civil Rights Division is working to enforce the 2nd Amendment.
Any gun owners who feel they are being prevented from lawfully registering or owning a firearm can submit a complaint online to the new 2nd Amendment Section.
The Texas state legislature passed HB 3053 earlier this year, banning local governments from organizing gun buyback programs, as The Dallas Express reported at the time. The bill eventually took effect on September 1.
