DC & Guns

A federal judge Tuesday put on hold the decision he issued over the weekend banning enforcement of a key law Washington, D.C. police and federal law enforcement officials use to control the possession of handguns in the nation's capital.

U.S. District Court Judge Frederick Scullin Jr. stayed his earlier ruling for 90-days after the gun rights advocates who filed the case agreed to that length of delay in order to allow the D.C. Council to try to revise the law to comply with the judge's decision. Laywers for the city had asked for a delay of 180 days to allow for an appeal and/or action by the D.C. Council.

Scullin's ruling released on Saturday held one of D.C.'s main gun control laws unconstitutional and ordered that the city not arrest people for possession of guns legally registered in other jurisdictions. The decision caused concern among law enforcement officials who were faced with no clear basis to arrest someone found in the vicinity of most government buildings in possession of a handgun.

Officials said Monday that they had other authority to arrest people entering Congressional office buildings, the Capitol, or its grounds, with weapons, even though police have often used the D.C. law to charge such individuals. Another law bans entering other types of federal buildings with a weapon, but can only be enforced if a conspicuous sign at each building entrance makes the legal ban clear or if the person entering can be proven to know about the law.

Scullin's new order (posted here) puts the prior ruling finding the D.C. gun control law unconstitutional on hold until October 22. In addition, he made clear that his prior order only applied to handguns, so should not stand as a basis for anyone carrying other types of weapons claiming they are doing so legally.

'The Court notes that it sees no need to clarify its decision. The only issue before the Court was whether the District of Columbia's complete ban on the carrying of handguns in public was unconstitutional. Thus, the Court's injunction clearly applied only to handguns and not any other type of deadly dangerous weapon,' Scullin wrote.