Constitutional Law

D.C. Council Approves New Law Regulating Handguns

The District of Columbia Council, not giving up on regulating handguns, approved a new ordinance requiring would-be gun owners to receive safety training and to register their weapons. The New York Times reported that the ordinance would also require gun owners to “undergo a criminal background check every six years.” Earlier this year, the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated the District’s longtime ban on handguns, concluding it violated the Second Amendment. The National Rifle Association bemoaned the Council’s new gun ordinance, telling The Times that the City Council “continues to try to make it harder and harder” for individuals to own guns. Adam Winkler, a law professor at UCLA, wrote in a guest ACSBlog post that the 5-4 majority in D.C. v. Heller while upholding an individual right to “bear arms for private purposes,” left many questions for lower courts to grapple with. For example, Winkler wrote, lower courts will face questions on how the Heller decision would apply to regulations on guns in the workplace, bans on sawed-off shotguns and bans on carrying concealed weapons.

Full post as published by ACS Blog on December 31, 1969 (boomark / email).