by Dave Workman
Senior Editor

The Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) has filed a lawsuit against the District of Columbia (DC) and Police Chief Cathy Lanier over restrictive handgun regulations that could have fallout that reaches across the country to the state of California.

The lawsuit, which has been joined by individual residents of the District, challenges the city’s restrictive regulations which are based on the California Roster of Handguns Certified for Sale. SAF’s lawsuit asserts that “the California approved handgun roster adopted by the defendants to limit the availability of handguns in the District of Columbia is irrational and arbitrary.”

SAF is represented by attorney Alan Gura, who successfully argued the Heller case before the US Supreme Court.

There are aspects of the case that, according to the plaintiffs, “challenge common sense.” For example, Gura told Gun Week via e-mail that one of the plaintiffs, Tracy Ambeau Hanson, could not register a Springfield XD-45 semi-automatic pistol because of its two-tone finish. Hanson’s chosen pistol is identical to other XD-45 models on the city’s California-approved list, but they are black, green or brown, the he explained.

“Do we really need a gun-fashion police,” Hanson marveled. “I just want to be able to exercise my Second Amendment rights without interference from the District government.”

Gura and SAF founder Alan Gottlieb said the District adopted the California list despite last year’s high court ruling protecting handguns “that ordinary people traditionally use for self-defense.”

“The Supreme Court’s decision is crystal clear,” Gottlieb commented. “Handguns that are used by people for self-defense and other lawful purposes cannot be banned, whether the city likes it or not. The city needs to accept the Second Amendment reality and stop this nonsense.”

Two other plaintiffs in the case are husband and wife. Paul and Gillian St. Lawrence have had their own problems with the regulations, which Gottlieb suggested appear to have been begrudgingly adopted and enforced as strictly as possible, to discourage or prevent as many citizens as possible from registering handguns to be kept in the home.

Gillian St. Lawrence’s handgun would once have been allowed under the regulations, but its listing on the California roster apparently expired. In a statement, she observed, “I didn’t realize that my constitutional rights had an expiration date.”

Paul St. Lawrence sought to register a High Standard Buntline-style revolver, but that older model handgun is also not on the California approved list. According to the lawsuit, the District actually did issue a registration certificate for the same model handgun following the Heller ruling.

The CalGuns Foundation has assisted in the case, Gottlieb noted, because of its expertise on California gun regulations.

“CalGuns Foundation was saddened to see the California Handgun Roster adopted in D.C.,” CalGuns Chairman Gene Hoffman stated.