Dick Heller has been a persistent thorn in the side of District of Columbia’s anti-gun government and police department for well over a decade and good on him for it. The 2008 decision in Heller v. DC is a Supreme Court landmark that clarified, finally, that the Second Amendment protects the individual right to keep and bear arms. Yesterday, Heller struck another slightly less momentous blow for gun rights in the District.
In July, Heller filed another lawsuit, this one also styled Heller v. DC. This latest action challenged the city’s limit on the total number of rounds a concealed carry license holder can carry in the Capital when armed. The city, in its infinite wisdom, had set a totally arbitrary limit of 20 rounds for concealed carriers.
This latest Heller case asked the court for an injunction to block enforcement of the limit. In a post-Bruen world, nonsensical, wholly unsupportable limits such as the carry limit is difficult, if not downright impossible to defend on the merits.
The District was coming up on the date by which the city had to respond to the lawsuit, justifying the 20-round limit. It seems that the city’s attorneys couldn’t manage to come up with an argument that wouldn’t have been laughed out of court under Bruen.
Given the current legal landscape, as Rob Romano reported last night, the city threw in the towel and used “emergency rulemaking” powers to repeal the 20-round limit.
NEW: Heller v. DC (D. DC): In response to a lawsuit from Dick Heller, Washington DC has repealed its regulation that limited “the amount of ammunition concealed-carry licensees may carry to 20 rounds.” https://t.co/aabb98YOfp pic.twitter.com/eh6gaI1rHJ
— Rob Romano (@2Aupdates) September 14, 2022
Here’s the city’s filing:
In other words, the city knew it was going to be slapped down hard in court and didn’t want to risk a ruling that could endanger other aspects of its current gun control regime. Better to nix the limit without a fight and deal with other challenges down the road.
Chalk up another win for Dick Heller. Congrats and thank you.