Heller Denied Hand Gun Registration
Posted by Tom Remington on July 18, 2008
The United States Supreme Court clearly ruled in the District of Columbia vs. Heller hand gun ban case that denying its citizens the right to own a handgun in their homes for self protection was unconstitutional. It also concluded that requiring those guns to be disassembled, locked up or equipped with trigger locks while in the home was unconstitutional. All of this and yet the District of Columbia’s City Council passed emergency legislation in what they claim is a move to comply with the Court’s ruling, that flies in the face of the Supreme Court.
Here’s what the emergency gun registration law now says.
Emergency legislation passed by the D.C. City Council for registering handguns requires that:
1. Applicants must be 21 years old. Those between 18 and 21 may qualify if they obtain notarized statements from parents or guardians who pledge to assume civil liability for damages.
2. Offenders with records of violent crime or weapons offenses are ineligible.
3. People under indictment for crimes of violence or weapons offenses are ineligible.
4. Applicants convicted of dangerous drug offenses, assault or threats of bodily harm within the previous five years are ineligible.
5. Those acquitted of any criminal charge by reason of insanity or declared chronic alcoholics by any court within the previous five years are ineligible.
6. Applicants who have been voluntarily or involuntarily committed to mental institutions within the previous five years are ineligible.
7. Applicants must be free of physical defects that would make gun possession unsafe.
8. People found negligent in firearms incidents causing death or injury are ineligible.
9. Applicants must pass a written test and vision exam.
10. Applicants must submit to fingerprinting. Cost: $35.
This is only the requirements of the individual. Once we get into the restrictions on the guns themselves that the District will allow, it gets even more ridiculous. The new law also still requires all registered guns to be rendered useless while in your home.
Yesterday marked the first day in which D.C. residents could begin the application process to acquire a permit to keep a gun in their homes. Among those who showed up for the event was Dick Heller, the Heller of District of Columbia vs. Heller. He was denied a permit for his gun because it was a bottom loading gun, according to Allahpundit of Hot Air.
A spokesman for the DC Police says the gun was a bottom-loading weapon, and according to their interpretation, all bottom-loading guns are outlawed because they are grouped with machine guns.
To that, this is what Allahpundit offered in response to what’s going on in D.C.
the District’s just jerking around with formalistic distinctions in order to limit as many household weapons as it can.
USA Today has an article today that seems to be playing down the shenanigans of the city and shares a comment from a spokesman for the Brady Campaign.
Dennis Henigan, vice president of law and policy at the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, said the D.C. law is a “good faith effort to comply” with the court.
Good faith effort? Are you kidding me? This is nothing more than an outright challenge to the Supreme Court saying they don’t want to abide by the decisions of that court.
Desert Rat, a blogger for Skinny Moose Media, refers to the same event yesterday and puts his thoughts this way.
This is chickens**t to the Nth Degree. It reinforces that the anti-gun crowd feels that they are even above the will of the Supreme Court.
Allahpundit asks this question:
How many millions of dollars in litigation expenses will it cost the District to fight, and lose, the next round of lawsuits instead of complying with the Court’s decision now in good faith?
And to further that question, we have to ask how many billions of dollars will be spent in courts all across this land because the anti-gun people will force more lawsuits challenging the decision of the Supreme Court?
For more on District of Columbia vs. Heller, the decision, oral arguments and events since the ruling, follow this link.
Tom Remington
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