Even though the U.S. Supreme Court found that Washington, DC's more than 30-year-old handgun ban violated the Second Amendment, that doesn't mean our nation's capital will soon turn into the handgun Valhalla envisioned by pro-gun advocates.
Is it bad for DC residents? Yes. Is it as bad as it could be? No. The reason for this is that the Court's ruling does not affect the District's ban on "machine guns," which under DC law includes any gun "which shoots, is designed to shoot, or can be readily converted or restored to shoot semiautomatically, more than 12 shots without manual reloading." This definition includes virtually all semiautomatic handguns. As a result, the District's ban can remain in force for those types of handguns. In essence, the Court's ruling for the most part will only affect revolvers and derringers.
Semiautomatic guns are the weapon of choice in mass shootings -- including Virginia Tech -- and police killings. Firing one shot per trigger pull, they have greater ammunition capacity and can be quickly and easily reloaded. Semiautomatic handguns, also known as pistols, are the most common type of handgun manufactured in America, representing 73 percent of the 1,403,329 handguns manufactured in the United States in 2006 (the last year for which figures are available). In contrast, revolvers hold only five to six ammunition rounds, fire more slowly, take time to reload, and represent only 27 percent of the handguns manufactured in 2006.
Yesterday's decision flips legal logic and common sense on its head. As measured in gun death and injury, handguns are our nation's most lethal category of firearm: accounting for the vast majority of the 30,000 Americans who die from guns each year. They are also our nation's leading murder and suicide tool. Yet the majority opinion offers the greatest offender the strongest legal protection. It's analogous to the Court carving out special constitutional protection for child pornography in a First Amendment case.
In its ruling, the Court brushed away our nation's history of mass shootings, assassinations, and unparalleled gun violence. It has instead accepted an abstract academic argument with dangerous real-world results for residents of the District of Columbia.
It's now up to the District of Columbia's leadership to make sure that, by limiting the types of handguns that can be registered in DC, that they do their best to lessen the inevitable damage that will come from this ruling.
And to fight off the next legal attack from the gun lobby when they do so.
The Supreme Court created a very simple test in Heller. If the gun is an "ordinary" and "common" gun and is not overly dangerous (real machine guns) then it is protected. The fact is that of the 50 states that allow handguns, all 50 allow semiautomatic handguns. Semiautomatic handguns are legal under federal law. No other city has banned semiautomatic handguns exclusively, they are only banned in other cities such as Chicago when all handguns are banned. Semiautomatic handguns now outsell revolvers almost 3 to 1 (1,021,260 semiautomatics sold in 2007 compared to 382,069 revolvers according to ATF). Semiautomatics are now the most common handguns among police and the military as well. . These facts expose the obvious, semiautomatic handguns are both common and ordinary and easily meet the Supreme Court's test, regardless of any definition that D.C. attempts to create out of thin air. In the end, the courts will both allow and protect them as well as revolvers, derringers, and single-shot handguns.
The DC government continues to make a fool of itself, watch this law be struck down and Fently look like an even bigger idiot.
If semi-auto handguns are "machine guns" then why aren't they regulated by the 1934 NFA Act?
Why can law-abiding citizens purchase semi-auto handguns without going through a Class 3 dealer?
You should know this, being an FFL holder yourself and all.
It’s often-said that an armed society is a polite society. That apothegm encapsulates the reality of risk in strong debate with an armed individual. The gain in forced civility is a loss in the free expression of opinion upon which democracy depends and which is protected under the first amendment.
Thomas Jefferson warned his grandson of the physical danger of “entering into dispute or argument with another.” “I have seen many,” he said, “on their getting warm, becoming rude, and shooting one another.” (Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Jefferson Randolph, November 24, 1808)
When communities set provisions that do nothing for the public's physical safety while infringing on the rights of the individuals, it deserves to be struck down.
This "new" 2A is the same as the old one. Sorry Charlie.
Oh well, it's just the Law. Who cares about being grammatically correct?
Should not, then, the First Amendment refer to "the right of the persons to peaceably assemble"?
Or the Fourth Amendment to "the right of the persons to be secure in their persons . . . "?
The Ninth--" . . . deny or disparage others retained by the persons"?
The Tenth--" . . . or to the persons"?
That's just silly, and I can only assume you're kidding.
>>>>?The US has a long-established culture of guns as a symbol survival:
...as they had a war of independence in which the citizenry overthrew an oppressive government using their own personal weapons;
...as there was a far, far greater number of people in their 19th century frontier exposed to lawlessness (due to primitive communications) than in our 19th century frontier; and
...as they had a civil war in which millions of men were armed by the state for doing battle on their own soil..."
http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=7508
Regulate: To control or direct according to rule, principle, or law.
No one regulates voters. Militias require training. Books are not dangerous. Your parallel is integrally flawed. Which is, perhaps, why no such law regulating books exists or has ever been considered.
It's a ridiculous definition, and won't stand up to the "common civilian use" test, since semi-automatic pistols and rifles are as common as the one dollar bill, and if they weren't useful for self-defense, the police wouldn't carry them.
DC can try to weasel around this as much as it wants, but The Court was pretty clear. I'll give you one thing, Josh, unlike your fellow travelers on this issue, you at least recognize your movement was handed a stunning defeat, and are lashing out as I would expect, and in a manner that is pleasing for this second amendment activist to watch.
I suppose that's understandable, giving your organization was never shy that its goal was to ban handguns, which is now off the table. I'm sure it's hard to watch your life's work crumble around you. Especially with the flurry of lawsuits today filed in Chicago and San Francisco, challenging gun bans there, and also Wilmette, IL recent announcement that they were suspending enforcement of their gun ban. It's got to be tough.
Good point! The most common centerfire handgun for competitive shooting is the 1911 self-loading pistol (clones and variations)in .45 ACP or .38 Super (for IPSC shooting). The Glock pistol also sees great popularity in action type events, as well as the Browning Hi Power.
The most common rimfire handgun for competitive shooting is the Ruger .22 pistol. Yes, it is another self-loading pistol. Some people also shoot High Standard Pistols, Browning .22 pistols, Beretta . 22 pistols, Walther .22 pistols, and etc.
The most common rimfire rifle in use today is the Ruger 10-22 self-loading rifle. Winchester .22 Rifles also see use, Marlin .22 rifles, and many other self-loading .22 rifles.
It has already be said by others, high power rifle competition is dominated by the M1A self-loading rifle, and the AR-15 self-loading rifle. The AR-15 is especially popular with women, because of the light recoil. The AR-15 also is also useful as part of the home defense battery.
Why are these shotguns so popular? The reason is: A self-loading firearm will soften the recoil, making it more tolerable. The recoil from a 12 gauge pump, or double barrel, shotgun, loaded with heavy loads, can be quite brutal. I know this from personal experience. I received a painful bruising from a 12 gauge pump shotgun, loaded with magnum buckshot loads.
Some of you just want the opposite of what Republicans want. Or maybe guns make you feel "icky" and banning them makes you feel warm and fuzzy. Nice. That kind of decision making is what was behind the initial public support for invading Iraq.
Step back and examine the facts of this issue objectively and you'll see this is not going to reduce or increase crime significantly either way.
Watch the violent crime rate in DC go DOWN.
Mark my words.
Allow me to collect myself. All of that spinning in your blog has got me a bit dizzy.
Now, I know that in order to promote your agenda, you have to include the 17,000 suicides per year in the 30,000 gun death statistics. I know you have to include 25 year olds as children in your child gun accident/death statistics. But now to equate semi-automatic handguns as "machine guns?" For real? For real for real???
I'm assuming that in addition to your FFL, you also have a class 3 dealer license then? You know, to ahve all those "machine guns" in your inventory?!