by Dave Workman
Senior Editor

A federal appeals court has opened the way for a Second Amendment challenge to the 25-year-old handgun ban in Washington, DC, by rejecting a motion from the city to dismiss the case.

Attorney Robert Levy, one of three lawyers representing several plaintiffs in Parker v. District of Columbia, told Gun Week that he was expecting the court to issue a schedule for briefs, and oral arguments. Levy is co-counsel with attorneys Alan Gura and Clark Neily.

The ban was enacted a quarter-century ago in the belief that it would help reduce violent crime in the nation’s capital. To the contrary, since the gun ban became law, crime rates have gone up. Washington, DC, today is one of the most crime-ridden cities in the nation, yet residents there cannot keep handguns in the home, and all rifles and shotguns must be disassembled and unloaded.

“We are not completely out of the standing woods yet,” Levy advised Gun Week in an e-mail.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs must still address the issue of standing, and how this case relates to the Second Amendment. The city has been trying to derail this case from the beginning, while also lobbying against legislation introduced in Congress to overturn the ban.

Levy explained that this lawsuit is not about anything other than having firearms in one’s home. It is not about concealed carry, he confirmed. Plaintiffs in the case only are asking the court to strike down the ban so that they can have working handguns, and assembled long guns, in their homes for personal protection.

He acknowledged that the process will be slow. Already, the court has had to wade through motions, responses to motions, replies to those responses, and so on.

The Second Amendment Foundation (SAF), which has been following the case, but is not a party to it, was delighted with the news. SAF founder Alan Gottlieb said that “citizens of the nation’s capitol have had to check their Second Amendment rights, and right of self-defense, at the Washington, DC, city limits.

“Because of this ban, the city is a haven for criminals who enjoy a virtually risk-free environment because their victims cannot fight back,” Gottlieb continued. “The crime rate in Washington, DC, is proof positive that the ill-advised handgun ban has not worked.”