“Good reason to fear injury to his or her person” Unconstitutional

By Gregory Smith

 

Good news for gun owners in DC!

A federal judge has ruled that a key provision to D.C.’s recent concealed carry gun law is unconstitutional.

In a 23-page decision issued yesterday, Judge Frederick Scullin ruled that the provision of the city’s recently implemented concealed carry law—in which a District resident must prove to police that they have “good reason to fear injury to his or her person” or “any other proper reason for carrying a pistol”—violates Second Amendment rights.

“This conclusion should not be read to suggest that it would be inappropriate for the District of Columbia to enact a licensing mechanism that includes appropriate time, place, and manner restrictions on the carrying of handguns in public,” Scullin wrote in his decision. “The District of Columbia’s arbitrary ‘good reason’/proper reason’ requirement, however, goes far beyond establishing such reasonable restrictions. Rather, for all intents and purposes, this requirement makes it impossible for the overwhelming majority of law-abiding citizens to obtain licenses to carry handguns in public for self-defense, thereby depriving them of their Second Amendment right to bear arms.”

This is a major win for gun rights activists, who complained that D.C.’s concealed carry law was too restrictive. …read more

Source:: Selling the Second Amendment