A judge’s ruling on Washington DC’s ban on carrying handguns in public made the nation’s capital the latest focus in America’s intense debate over firearm regulation.
The ruling last week declared a law, which prohibits carrying handguns in public, unconstitutional and ordered that it no longer be enforced.
Handguns have only been permitted in Washington, DC, since 2008 when a landmark decision ruled that banning them outright was unconstitutional. According to the US constitution, all citizens have the right to bear arms under the second amendment.
Following the 2008 decision, the city imposed a series of restrictions and regulations to handgun ownership that mandated all firearms be left at home.
That is the part of the law that Judge Frederick Scullin struck down.
Scullin shredded the law, saying that it could not be considered constitutional “under any level of scrutiny”.
The ruling is the latest chapter in a country where gun slayings - including those of small children in schools like the 20 killed in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012 - routinely occur.
Yet US President Barack Obama, who wants tighter gun regulation, has been unable to convince Congress to take steps. Many Republicans and Democrats are beholden to the powerful National Rifle Association lobby, which targets gun control advocates in elections.
Gun ownership advocates who fought a long battle to repeal the ban in Washington DC cheered the ruling, while groups that favour stricter gun laws took it as a loss.
“If you have the right to carry a gun, it wouldn’t make any sense to understand that it just happens to be limited inside your living room,” Alan Gura, one of the attorneys who challenged the ban, has told a local ABC affiliate.
Gura believes that the relaxation of the legislation will benefit the city.
“I believe the city is absolutely safer. Make no mistake about it. This is a fantastic improvement in public safety,” Gura has told the Washington Post.
America’s problem with gun violence is not the result of law-abiding people carrying guns, according to him.
A spokeswoman for the Brady Campaign Against Gun Violence, however, calls the ruling “disappointing”.
Scullin’s decision strikes down “a longstanding and important public safety law,” says Jennifer Fuson, a spokeswoman for the Brady Campaign Against Gun Violence.
“It would be a law enforcement nightmare if virtually anyone is allowed to carry loaded guns on the streets of the nation’s capital,” she says.
Fuson argues that the city’s abundance of foreign dignitaries, government officials and tourists could be put at risk by the court’s decision.
Scullin’s ruling, however, could be shortlived if the city’s attorney general decides to file an appeal.
