On April 2, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit granted D.C.’s motion to voluntarily dismiss an appeal of the ruling that held the District’s ban on carrying a firearm outside the home for self-defense was unconstitutional. The District’s decision not to continue the appeal ends one of the last outright bans on carrying firearms in the United States.
While this marks the end of the District’s total ban, those wishing to lawfully carry firearms in D.C. still have a long way to go before all law-abiding individuals have a legal means of exercising their right to bear arms in the District. Shortly after the ban was held unconstitutional last July, the D.C. council adopted a temporary law that makes it all but impossible to get a license to carry a concealed pistol. A nearly identical version of that temporary law is still in effect, and a permanent version is under review by Congress and set to become law on May 30.
Plaintiffs in the case have attempted to enjoin the newly enacted D.C. carry law as contrary to the court’s order that required D.C. to create a licensing system that complies with the Second Amendment, but the court has yet to rule on the injunction. Perhaps the best hope for recognition of the right to bear arms in the District was introduced in Congress by U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and U.S. Representative Jim Jordan (R-Ohio). “The Second Amendment Enforcement Act of 2015” includes a "shall-issue licensing" system that would only allow the District to deny a license to individuals who fail a background check or who do not satisfy other objective criteria.
Please contact your U.S. Senators and U.S. Representative and urge them to cosponsor and support "The Second Amendment Enforcement Act of 2015."
You can contact your U.S. Senators and U.S. Representative by phone at (202) 224-3121, or by using our "Write Your Lawmakers" tool at www.NRAILA.org.
D.C. Shifts from Defending Total Ban on Carrying Firearms, to Defense of Near-Total Ban

Friday, April 17, 2015

Thursday, January 1, 2015
CAUTION: Federal and state firearms laws are subject to frequent change. This summary is not to be considered as legal advice or a restatement of law.
Thursday, April 15, 2021
Thursday morning, Gov. Phil Murphy held a press conference to unveil yet another gun control package in the Garden State.
Monday, April 12, 2021
At Biden's recent Rose Garden ceremony, where he announced his latest assault on the Second Amendment, he lied a number of times, and garbled the name of the federal agency tasked with enforcing federal gun ...
Friday, April 16, 2021
Early Thursday evening, on a 84-56 vote, the Texas House gave initial approval to House Bill 1927, by Rep. Matt Schaefer (R-Tyler), an NRA-backed permitless carry proposal that would allow law-abiding citizens to carry a handgun without a state-issued License To ...
Friday, April 9, 2021
During a press conference on Thursday, President Biden announced that he would once again be targeting law-abiding gun owners by ordering ATF to develop two new restrictive regulations. Aiming to accessorize the Department of Justice’s ...