Legal News

Gun law dispute sinks voting rights bill for DC

For some residents of the nation's capital, a bill to give them a voting member of Congress wasn't worth the price: severely weakened gun laws.

"As much as I want the vote in the city, I think the gun ban is hugely important," said Betsy Cutler, 41, a paralegal who lives in Adams Morgan, a neighborhood of bars and restaurants where she has heard gunfire more than once.

House members had been expected to vote this week on a bill that would have granted, for the first time, the District of Columbia's 600,000 residents a voting representative. But politicians said Tuesday they had decided to pull the measure, calling an amendment supported by the National Rifle Association destructive to D.C.'s gun laws.

The NRA pushed to bar the city from prohibiting or interfering with the public carrying of firearms, either concealed or openly. Opponents said the amendment would have made it easy for people to carry firearms without permits and would have stopped D.C. from prohibiting guns in city-controlled buildings.

NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam said the measure was needed because the city has not complied with a 2008 Supreme Court ruling requiring it to revise its gun laws.

Gun owners sue DC for right to carry weapons

 The attorney who got the Supreme Court to overturn the District of Columbia's handgun ban is now challenging rules that prohibit gun owners from carrying their weapons outside their homes.

Attorney Alan Gura filed a lawsuit Thursday in federal court challenging the gun laws the city passed in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling. Those laws allow people to keep registered guns only at home for self-defense.

Three of the plaintiffs in the case are licensed D.C. gun owners who had applications rejected when they applied to carry their guns outside their homes.

Another from Maryland applied to carry his gun for self-defense while visiting D.C. after he was stopped for speeding and charged with carrying a loaded handgun in his car.

Airports, Churches and Schools: An Update on Guns & the Law

Gun advocates, it would seem, are emboldened in the wake of D.C. v. Heller — the recent Scotus case, in which the Court ruled that the Second Amendment “protects an individual right to possess a firearm unconnected with service in a militia, and to use that arm for traditional lawful purposes, such as self-defense within the home.” In the past week alone, we’ve seen a lot of gun-related news. Here’s a round-up of some of the more interesting stories:

Federal judge says ‘No’ to guns in airports: On Monday, U.S. District Court Judge Marvin Shoob refused to grant a preliminary injunction that would’ve stopped Atlanta from enforcing an airport gun ban at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. Here’s a story from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The Georgia legislature passed a bill, which became law on July 1, that permits people with firearms licenses to carry guns in state parks, restaurants that serve alcohol and on mass transit. But Judge Shoob said allowing concealed weapons into non-secure areas of the world’s busiest airport will make the airport less safe and require it to substantially revise its security procedures.

Robert Kennedy, the airport’s assistant general manager in charge of operations, said that if a gun were to be accidentally discharged in a non-secure area it would cause mass panic. “It creates, in my mind, a stampede,” Kennedy said.

Take your gun to school: The AP is reporting that trustees of the Harrold Independent School District, a tiny Texas school district, may be the first in the nation to allow teachers and staff to pack guns for protection.

Superintendent David Thweatt said the small community is a 30-minute drive from the sheriff’s office, leaving students and teachers without protection. He said the district’s lone campus sits 500 feet from heavily trafficked U.S. 287, which could make it a target. “When the federal government started making schools gun-free zones, that’s when all of these shootings started. Why would you put it out there that a group of people can’t defend themselves? That’s like saying ’sic ‘em’ to a dog,” Thweatt reportedly said.
Full Story