D.C. Appeals to Supreme Court on Gun Law

AP:

WASHINGTON (AP) — The District of Columbia on Tuesday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a ruling that struck down the city's 30-year-old ban on private handgun ownership. If the Supreme Court takes the case, it could lead to its first direct ruling on the Second Amendment since 1939. Mayor Adrian Fenty announced the appeal on the steps of police headquarters: 'The bottom line is we do not need more guns in this city.' The district argues that the Second Amendment prohibits only federal interference in the rights of states to maintain citizen militias, but does not cover the ability of citizens to own handguns privately for other purposes. It argues that states have the right to regulate gun ownership and that the district should be treated like a state. A federal appeals court panel ruled in March that the district's broad gun law was unconstitutional.