Thursday, July 17, 2008

D.C. To SCOTUS: Screw You

It looks like the powers that be in the District of Columbia have decided to give a hearty "screw you" to the Supreme Court.

Dick Heller, the man behind the case which brought down the DC handgun ban has been denied a permit by the DC powers. It's also likely that his firearm has been confiscated, as well, even though the article fails to mention it.

WASHINGTON (WUSA) -- District residents can start registering their guns today. But at least one very high profile application was already rejected.

Dick Heller is the man who brought the lawsuit against the District's 32-year-old ban on handguns. He was among the first in line Thursday morning to apply for a handgun permit.

But when he tried to register his semi-automatic weapon, he says he was rejected. He says his gun has seven bullet clip. Heller says the City Council legislation allows weapons with fewer than eleven bullets in the clip. A spokesman for the DC Police says the gun was a bottom-loading weapon, and according to their interpretation, all bottom-loading guns are outlawed because they are grouped with machine guns.

So, semi-automatic handguns are now "machine guns"? Insanity certainly rules inside the Beltway, (but, we already knew that now, didn't we?). Looks as if we are in for yet another round of court battling. I can't help but wonder if this will be an example of Scalia's "reasonable restrictions".

As an aside, I cannot help but wonder if Mr. Heller and his attorneys did not pursue this particular course on purpose. It would certainly be a good case to bring before the courts in order to force DC to implement a rational policy, rather than the overly restrictive current policy.
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