After reading this update from NRA-ILA Site Updates I am wondering why we need a House Resolution to enforce the intentions of the Supreme Court.  For years we have heard about the judicial precedence and how the court’s rulings revise laws (aka Legislating from the Bench).  Why then must we pass a law when the highest court in the land has made a decision? 

Revised “District of Columbia Personal Protection Act” Introduced

Thursday, July 31, 2008

This legislation (H.R. 6691) is necessary to enforce the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in District of Columbia v. Heller, by repealing the District’s recently enacted unconstitutional restrictions on its residents’ right to keep and bear arms. 1. Repeal D.C. Ban on Semiautomatic Pistols In Heller, the Court held that “Handguns are the most popular weapon chosen by Americans for self-defense in the home, and a complete prohibition of their use is invalid”. Semiautomatic pistols are the most commonly owned handguns in the United States (75 percent of the handguns sold in the past 20 years are semiautomatics), and are therefore “the most popular weapon chosen by Americans for self-defense in the home”. The new D.C. City Council ordinance continues the 30-year old ban on semiautomatic pistols, which clearly violates the Heller decision. This bill repeals D.C.’s ban on semiautomatic pistols in order to comply with Heller. 2. Restore Right of Self-Defense in the Home In Heller, the Court held that “the requirement that any lawful firearm in the home be disassembled or bound by a trigger lock makes it impossible for citizens to use arms for the core lawful purpose of self-defense and is therefore unconstitutional.” The D.C. ordinance provides that trigger locks may only be removed and firearms made operable if there is an “immediate” threat of danger. Once a threat is “immediate”, however, there is no time to remove a trigger lock or assemble a firearm. This clearly violates the Heller decision. This bill repeals D.C.’s requirement that firearms be disassembled or secured with a trigger lock in the home. 3. Repeal Registration Requirement The D.C. ordinance maintains an extremely burdensome registration process for handguns and ammunition, requiring: multiple visits to police headquarters; ballistics testing; passing a written test on D.C. gun laws; fingerprinting; and limiting registration to one handgun per 90 days. Each of these must be met before D.C. residents are allowed to legally own a handgun. This bill repeals the current D.C. registration system, which is unduly burdensome and serves as a vehicle for even more onerous restrictions. 4. Allow D.C. Residents to Purchase Handguns Federal law prohibits the purchase of a handgun outside of a person’s state of residence. There are currently no firearms dealers in the District of Columbia, nor are there likely to be in the near future. Therefore, D.C. residents are allowed under the Heller decision to possess handguns, but are prohibited by federal law from purchasing handguns. This bill creates an exemption to the federal ban on interstate handgun sales by allowing D.C. residents to purchase handguns in Virginia and Maryland.

Related posts

• NRA Statement on New DC Gun Bill (0)
• Assault Weapons Ban Confusion (0)
• Heller yeah… (0)
• Illegal? (0)
• New DC Gun Law (0)

Tags: 2nd Amendment, Ammunition, Ballistics, Constitution, District of Columbia, Firearms, Gun Registration, Gun Sales, Handgun, Heller, Law, Legislation, Maryland, NRA, Pistol, Police, Semiautomatic, Supreme Court, United States, Virginia, Washington

Here is a great post from Snowflakes in Hell

Firearms

NRA Statement on New DC Gun Bill

As a follow up to the news that NRA managed to hammer out a deal with Congress to stop the gun registration shenanigans by Mayor Fenty and the DC Council, they have a released this statement:

Today, in a bi-partisan effort, Congressman Travis Childers, Congressmen John Dingell, John Tanner, Mike Ross and Mark Souder, along with 47 of their colleagues, introduced the Second Amendment Enforcement Act. This critical legislation overturns D.C.’s recently enacted emergency laws that continue to defy the recent Supreme Court ruling by continuing to restrict District of Columbia residents’ right to self-defense. This National Rifle Association-backed bill is needed to enforce the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in District of Columbia v. Heller.

On June 26, the U. S. Supreme Court held in District of Columbia v. Heller that “the District’s ban on handgun possession in the home violates the Second Amendment, as does its prohibition against rendering any lawful firearm in the home operable for the purpose of immediate self-defense.” The Supreme Court clearly stated that handguns are constitutionally-protected arms because they are commonly used, are typically possessed by law-abiding citizens for lawful purposes, are considered by the American people to be the quintessential self-defense weapon, are the most popular weapon chosen by Americans for self-defense in the home and are the most preferred firearm in the nation to keep and use for protection of home and family.

The Second Amendment Enforcement Act will:

* Repeal the District’s ban on semi-automatic handguns. Semi-automatic pistols have been the most commonly purchased handguns in the United States over the last 20 years, and therefore a ban on those firearms is unconstitutional as decided by Heller;

* Restore the right of self-defense by repealing the requirement that firearms be disassembled or secured with a trigger lock in the home;

* Repeal the current D.C. registration system that requires multiple visits to police headquarters; ballistics testing; passing a written test on D.C. gun laws; fingerprinting; and limiting registration to one handgun per 90 days. The current system is unduly burdensome and serves as a vehicle for even more onerous restrictions; and

* Create a limited exemption to the federal ban on interstate handgun sales by allowing D.C. residents to purchase handguns in Virginia and Maryland. Currently there are no firearms dealers in the District of Columbia, and the federal ban prohibits residents from purchasing handguns outside of the District; therefore, District residents have no means of purchasing handguns.

More

Related posts

• Revised “District of Columbia Personal Protection Act” Introduced (0)
• Assault Weapons Ban Confusion (0)
• Illegal? (0)
• Heller yeah… (0)
• Congress Has a Duty to Intervene (0)

Tags: 2nd Amendment, Ballistics, Congress, Constitution, District of Columbia, Firearms, Gun Registration, Gun Sales, Handgun, Heller, Law, Legislation, Maryland, NRA, Pistol, Police, Rifle, Semiautomatic, Supreme Court, United States, Virginia

Here is an update on Heller v. DC from Snowflakes in Hell

Heller v. DC

That’s right, it’s not DC v. Heller.  Dick Heller is suing the District of Colombia once again over their new gun laws.  We wish Mr. Heller the best of luck.

UPDATE: You can see a copy of the complaint here.

UPDATE: Now that I’ve had time to read, it looks like they are basically asking for an injunction against:

1. The ballistics testing nonsense
2. The nonsense about not being able to register a semi-automatic pistol under DC’s ridiculous definition of “machine gun”
3. They ask for any further relief the court may want to offer.

What they are not asking for an injunction on is whether semi-autos that can shoot more than 12 rounds from a magazine.  Also, again, they aren’t challenging the registration itself.  That’ll all be later cases.  Pick the low hanging fruit first.

More

Related posts

• Revised “District of Columbia Personal Protection Act” Introduced (0)
• NRA Statement on New DC Gun Bill (0)
• Illegal? (0)
• Heller yeah… (0)
• Assault Weapons Ban Confusion (0)

Tags: Ballistics, Firearms, Heller, Law, Machine Gun, Pistol, Politics, Semiautomatic, Supreme Court, Washington

This is Part II in a series, if you have not read Part I it can be found here Choosing a New Gun Part 1

Searching the Internet for information is a bit like getting on a telephone “party line” and asking for an opinion.  I spent several hours researching the various calibers for a carry gun and finding a lot of opinion, conjecture, and supposition.

There were several interesting sights offering various bits of data, mixed with conjecture.  One of the best quotes I found during the research was on The Box O’ Truth

People often say, “I think…”, “I suppose…”, “I bet…”, when discussing facts like penetration of ammunition.

There is only one way to know how much a certain round penetrates.

You must shoot it into a medium and see for a fact.

Results found:  9MM penetrates slightly more (one additional sheet of plywood) than 45ACP

I visited several other websites that had were of the same opinion (9mm fast, 45 slow).  A few websites, however, proclaimed the 40 S&W as a good mix of the two.

After a couple more websites, with ballistics results, I started to understand Ayoob’s comments about ”Morgue Monsters and Jello Junkies.”  There was a seeming endless, sometimes contradictory, stream of data available.

.40 S&W 155 grain Federal Hi-Shok JHP, 1/7/91:

Test Gun	Barrel Length	Velocity	Bare Gelatin		Clothed Gelatin
			Penetration	Expansion	Penetration	Expansion
Glock 22	4.5″	1167 fps	13.75″	0.61″	19.50″	0.51″

.40 S&W 165 grain CCI/Speer Gold Dot JHP, 11/17/97:

Test Gun	Barrel Length	Velocity	Bare Gelatin		Clothed Gelatin
			Penetration	Expansion	Penetration	Expansion
SIG P229	4″	1076 fps	13.05″	0.65″	15.80″	0.60″

.40 S&W 165 grain Federal Tactical HydraShok JHP, 2/27/97:

Test Gun	Barrel Length	Velocity	Bare Gelatin		Clothed Gelatin
			Penetration	Expansion	Penetration	Expansion
H&K USP	4	1007 fps	13.85″	0.62″	15.15″	0.64″

After all of the reading and research, I decided it was time to get a 40 S&W caliber firearm and go to the range.

Related posts

• Choosing a New Gun Part 3 (0)
• Choosing a New Gun Part 1 (0)
• Revised “District of Columbia Personal Protection Act” Introduced (0)
• Illegal? (0)
• Assault Weapons Ban Confusion (0)

Tags: Ammunition, Ballistics, Caliber, CHL, Glock, H&K, Handgun, Sig Saur

Courthouse Fanatic had a great post today regarding Illegal Guns in DC… The post says it all.

Can you spot what’s illegal on my H&K 45C?

Yeah, I didn’t think so but according to the bleeding hearts in Washington DC my 45C would be violating at least 3 of their newly “revised” D.C. gun laws. The emergency legislation approved this week by the D.C. Council and Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) shows a total disregard of the recent Heller vs DC Supreme Court ruling.

1.) My gun is a semi-automatic - the new rules would still ban any “bottom-loading” semi-automatic handgun. Supreme Court ruled that D.C. could not ban handguns.

2.) My gun is loaded - D.C. residents must keep their weapons unloaded and either disassembled or equipped with trigger locks until they are in imminent danger from an attacker in the home. Justice Antonin Scalia wrote that the “prohibition against rendering any lawful firearm in the home operable for the purpose of immediate self-defense” violates the Second Amendment. Can’t you just imagine this scenario as the burglar breaks in “Mr. attacker could you wait just a minute while I reassemble and load my gun?”

3.) My gun has not been tested by local police - every gun submitted for licensing must be test-fired by police ballistics experts. This violates a congressional ban on federal agencies creating any kind of gun owner registry.

More

Related posts

• Revised “District of Columbia Personal Protection Act” Introduced (0)
• NRA Statement on New DC Gun Bill (0)
• Congress Has a Duty to Intervene (0)
• New DC Gun Law (0)
• Heller yeah… (0)

Tags: Ballistics, Congress, H&K, Handgun, Heller, Law, Legislation, Police, Politics, Semiautomatic, Supreme Court, United States, Washington