Federal Judge Denies Motion to Reconsider Palmer Ruling

The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has denied a motion by the District to reconsider its ruling in the case of Palmer v. District of Columbia, a Second Amendment Foundation case that nullified the city’s ban on carrying firearms outside of the home.

Judge Frederick J. Scullin, Jr., who issued an opinion in July striking down the total ban on carry as unconstitutional, wrote the five-page opinion denying the District’s motion. He reminded the District that “in light of Heller, McDonald and their progeny, there (was) no longer any basis on which this court (could) conclude that the District of Columbia’s total ban on the public carrying of ready-to-use handguns outside the home (was) constitutional under any level of scrutiny.”

SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan Gottlieb was happy with the ruling, asserting that the District’s motion for reconsideration was “an attempt to forestall the inevitable.” “Judge Scullin made it perfectly clear in July that the District cannot continue its outright ban on carry,” Gottlieb recalled.

“This new ruling reiterates the language in the Peruta decision in California that ‘the carrying of an operable handgun outside the home for the lawful purpose of self-defense, though subject to traditional restrictions, constitutes ”bear[ing] Arms’ within the meaning of the Second Amendment.’ I’m beginning to wonder what part of that the District doesn’t understand.”

Gottlieb said Judge Scullin’s new ruling is “one more small, but significant step” toward the restoration of Second Amendment rights for residents of the nation’s capital city, and thus a victory for citizens everywhere.