DC Ban on Semi-Auto Rifles and Registration of All Handguns Upheld Against Heller
Quote:
A federal appeals court Tuesday upheld the District of Columbia's ban on semiautomatic rifles and large-capacity ammunition magazines and its handgun-registration requirement, rejecting arguments that the new ordinance defies a 2008 Supreme Court decision.
Two-to-one, the court upheld that there is room for such regulation in Heller. For the majority, Judge Douglas Ginsburg (the Reagan SCOTUS nominee who withdrew from consideration in light of prior pot use) wrote that handgun registration is analogous to voting registration and to drivers' license registration and so is acceptable. The appeals court is of the opinion that the ban and registration requirement is in compliance with Heller (the Supreme Court decision of 2008) as long as citizens are able to acquire handguns legally.
The court remanded the issues of registration requirement for rifles and shotguns and the constitutionality of mandatory firearms safety training as a requirement of gun ownership.
IMO, registration to vote is due to having to validate my right and my identification at the poll on election day. And automobile registration and drivers' license issuance is because the public administers, maintains and enforces the laws on most roads. Therefore, I can say, reasonably, that no one need check that my gun is mine at any specific time or place and that gun ownership does not call for a ready, public record.
As the dissenting judge, Brett Kavanaugh wrote, "The Supreme Court has long made clear that the Constitution disables the government from employing certain means to prevent, deter, or detect violent crime."
The Supreme Court may have to make that more clear, again, to some DA's dragged kicking and screaming to 2A.
