By Dick Heller
In the aftermath of District of Columbia v. Heller, many residents in the nation’s capitol have been jousting with the the overbearing “Mother-knows-what’s-best-for-you” attitude about our Constitutional rights. Even though D.C.’s mayor city council deeply desire to be a state, they aren’t willing to do what a state must do when they lose a Supreme Court case. The Heller decision, and the cases that followed such as McDonald v Chicago and Moore v Madigan, made it abundantly clear that keepinging D.C. residents defenseless outside their homes was unconstitutional . . .
My friend Tim McNabb and his wife are here in Washington D.C. Last night, during dinner, we were talking about the pending Palmer v. District of Columbia deception and the arrogance of the city council. Today, we returned from “The Nation’s Gun Show” in Chantilly, Virginia where truly free citizens are able to openly carry…as well as buy guns, sell guns and obtain a concealed carry license. Tim wanted to buy a spare magazine for the firearm he carries in his native Missouri, but decided he wasn’t willing to risk committing a felony by transporting it into D.C. I’m used to this kind of crap having lived here for 40 years, but when I saw my friend decided against doing something that ought to be perfectly legal, I was P.O.’d.
Within minutes of getting home and sitting down at my kitchen table, I received a phone call. It was George Lyon, a plaintiff in the case as well as an attorney. He shared the good news that Judge Scullin, who was appointed by Justice Roberts, had issued a decision striking down the ridiculous and useless restrictions on self-defense with a firearm outside my home.
With George on the phone, we noted that at least for the next few hours (or even days) Washington D.C. joins states like Arizona and Vermont in being “constitutional carry” jurisdictions. George went on to advise against strapping on my Buntline Special lest I run into an ill-informed member of the MPD and wind up “ventilated.”
Reading the decision, I note that this judge did a great job of both summarizing and fortifying the logic of recent 2nd Amendment case law. Here is my second favorite quote:
This question is not difficult to answer. As the Seventh Circuit stated in Moore v. Madigan, 702 F.3d 933 (7th Cir. 2012), “[a] blanket prohibition on carrying gun[s] in public prevents a person from defending himself anywhere except inside his home; and so substantial a curtailment of the right of armed self-defense requires a greater showing of justification than merely that the public might benefit on balance from such a curtailment, though there is no proof that it would.”
Here is my favorite:
In light of Heller, McDonald, and their progeny, there is no longer any basis on which this Court can conclude that the District of Columbia’s total ban on the public carrying of ready-to-use handguns outside the home is constitutional under any level of scrutiny. Therefore, the Court finds that the District of Columbia’s complete ban on the carrying of handguns in public is unconstitutional.
Congratulations George and everyone else involved with the case. I am going to celebrate with a Nutter Butter and another cup of coffee.