Alan Gottlieb
By Dave Workman
Senior Editor
The Second Amendment Foundation has scored another victory as a federal judge in the District of Columbia has denied a motion by the city to reconsider his July ruling that the District ban on carry outside of the home is unconstitutional “under any level of scrutiny.”
The decision came from U.S. District Judge Frederick J. Scullin, Jr., who had warned the District in his July ruling 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 M. Gottlieb was delighted with Judge Scullin’s denial. In a prepared statement, Gottlieb noted, “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,” he commented.
Gottlieb suggested that the District has been stalling on the implementation of a concealed carry ordinance for as long as possible. He said the District’s motion for reconsideration was “an attempt to forestall the inevitable.”
In an Oct. 23 article published by The New American, plaintiff George Lyon was quoted complaining about the high cost of applying for certification. The course takes 16 hours in the classroom and two hours of range time, according to the story.
“This is another example of them making the process as difficult and expensive as possible,” he reportedly stated.
Gottlieb, who is now weighing various courses of action in the wake of a tough gun control battle in Washington State, was buoyed by the new Palmer case ruling. He called Scullin’s denial of reconsideration another step toward restoration of Second Amendment rights, not just for District residents, but for citizens everywhere.
“At some point,” Gottlieb said, “gun prohibitionists will have to realize that the Second Amendment is a fundamental civil right, not a government-regulated privilege.”
