NRA-ILA Site Updates

Despite Ruling, Washington Council Still Attacking the Second Amendment

Nearly six months after the Supreme Court put an end to the District of Columbia’s decades-old ban on handgun possession, the City Council here passed a sweeping new ordinance on Tuesday to regulate gun ownership.
The legislation would require all gun owners to receive five hours of safety training and to register their firearms every three years. In addition, they would have to undergo a criminal background check every six years.

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Here is a great post from - American Chronicle

On Bill of Rights Day, Imagine the D.C. Gun Law in 1775

By Stephen P. Halbrook, The Independent Institute

Today is the United States’ Bill of Rights Day, but District of Columbia residents are second-class citizens when it comes to the Second Amendment. President-elect Barack Obama certainly does not support it. When I filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court this June supporting the respondent in District of Columbia v. Heller on behalf of 55 senators, the senate president, and 250 representatives, Obama declined. And his voting record in the Illinois legislature and the U.S. Congress has been as hostile to American gun owners as King George III was in 1775. What’s in store for Second Amendment rights come January?

Imagine that a…

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NRA-ILA Site Updates

Defending Heller from "Faux Conservatism"

Of the many critiques that followed the Supreme Court’s landmark gun rights decision in District of Columbia v. Heller, perhaps the most interesting came from conservative federal Judge J. Harvey Wilkinson III. In a Virginia Law Review article entitled “Of Guns, Abortions, and the Unraveling Rule of Law,” Wilkinson denounced Justice Antonin Scalia’s majority opinion for engaging in judicial activism and compared the reasoning in Heller to that in the abortion rights case Roe v. Wade (not exactly a compliment from one conservative judge to another).

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I decided to investigate this confusion and came to the found the following:

The EXPIRED (1994-Sept 2004 enforcement period) assault weapons ban (officially know as, Federal Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994) had the following restrictions:

The Federal Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 specifically prohibited manufacture and sale of:

• Norinco, Mitchell, and Poly Technologies Avtomat Kalashnikovs (all models)
• Action Arms Israeli Military Industries UZI and Galil
• Beretta Ar70 (SC-70)
• Colt AR-15
• Fabrique National FN/FAL, FN/LAR, and FNC
• SWD M-10, M-11, M-11/9, and M-12
• Steyr AUG
• INTRATEC TEC-9, TEC-DC9 and TEC-22
• revolving cylinder shotguns, such as (or similar to) the Street Sweeper and Striker 12

In addition, the bill banned any semi-automatic rifle that can accept a detachable magazine and that also has at least two of the following characteristics:

• a folding or telescoping stock
• a pistol grip that protrudes conspicuously beneath the action of the weapon
• a bayonet mount
• a flash suppressor or threaded barrel designed to accommodate a flash suppressor
• a grenade launcher;

The bill banned any semi-automatic pistol that can accept a detachable magazine that also has at least two of the following characteristics:

• an ammunition magazine that attaches to the pistol outside of the pistol grip
• a threaded barrel capable of accepting a barrel extender, flash suppressor, forward handgrip, or silencer
• a shroud that is attached to, or partially or completely encircles, the barrel and that permits the shooter to hold the firearm with the
• nontrigger hand without being burned
• a manufactured weight of 50 ounces or more when the pistol is unloaded;
• a semiautomatic version of an automatic firearm
• Finally, the bill banned any semi-automatic shotgun has at least two of the following characteristics:
• a folding or telescoping stock
• a pistol grip that protrudes conspicuously beneath the action of the weapon
• a fixed magazine capacity in excess of 5 rounds
• an ability to accept a detachable magazine

It should be noted although the Federal ban expired in September 2004, Certain states have maintained restrictions on “assault” type weapons.

Info from NRA (Pre-Heller):

“Assault weapons” are prohibited in Connecticut, New Jersey and New York. Some local jurisdictions in Ohio also ban “assault weapons.” Hawaii prohibits “assault pistols.” California bans “assault weapons”, .50BMG caliber firearms, some .50 caliber ammunition and “unsafe handguns.” Illinois: Chicago, Evanston, Oak Park, Morton Grove, Winnetka, Wilmette, and Highland Park prohibit handguns; some cities prohibit other kinds of firearms. Maryland prohibits “assault pistols”; the sale or manufacture of any handgun manufactured after Jan. 1, 1985, that does not appear on the Handgun Roster; and the sale of any handgun manufactured after January 1, 2003 that is not equipped with an “integrated mechanical safety device.” Massachusetts: It is unlawful to sell, transfer or possess “any assault weapon or large capacity feeding device” [more than 10 rounds] that was not legally possessed on September 13, 1994 and the sale of handguns not on the Firearms Roster. The City of Boston has a separate “assault weapons” law. The District of Columbia prohibits new acquisition of handguns and any semi-automatic firearm capable of using a detachable ammunition magazine of more than 12 rounds capacity and any handgun not registered after February 5, 1977. Virginia prohibits “Street Sweeper” shotguns. (With respect to some of these laws and ordinances, individuals may retain prohibited firearms owned previously, with certain restrictions.) The sunset of the federal assault weapons ban does not affect the validity of state and local “assault weapons” bans.

The states and cities that maintained parts of the ban have caused this ban to live on. Thus the root of the pre-ban / post-ban confusion.   Luckily this ban is only in certain geographic areas which have been anti-gun for some time.  Perhaps with some more time and decisions out of the Supreme Court, we can get back to normal.

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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.

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