Judge Slams D.C. Concealed Carry Law As Unconstitutional

By Bob Owens

A federal judge ruled yesterday that a provision of the District of Columbia’s concealed carry law was too strict in requiring applicants to show “good reason” in order to obtain a concealed carry permit.

U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon found that the law violates the “core right of self-defense” granted in the Second Amendment, setting aside arguments from District officials that the regulation is needed to prevent crime and protect the public.

“The enshrinement of constitutional rights necessarily takes certain policy choices off the table,” Leon wrote in a 46-page opinion, quoting a 5-to-4 Supreme Court decision in 2008 in another District case that established a constitutional right to keep firearms inside one’s home.

Leon said the right applies both inside and outside the home.

“The District’s understandable, but overzealous, desire to restrict the right to carry in public a firearm for self-defense to the smallest possible number of law-abiding, responsible citizens is exactly the type of policy choice the Justices had in mind,” he wrote.

Leon’s decision is going to alarm gun control supporters in other very restrictive locations, as the District’s so-called “may issue” provision matches those in Maryland, New Jersey, and New York. The language has been upheld by federal judges …Read the Rest

Source:: Bearing Arms