In DC after the Heller decision, you could keep, but could you bear?
I recently wrote about Peruta, a California Second Amendment case originating in San Diego County and decided in February. That federal appeals court decision surprised a lot of people, because it was the Ninth Circuit saying that California’s gun laws were unconstitutionally illiberal, and it seemed to go beyond Heller, the Supreme Court decision on which it heavily relied.
Heller was a District of Columbia case that was appealed to the Supreme Court. It said that the Second Amendment right to bear arms was an individual right, not only a collective right (for militia), but its holding was limited to DC’s laws against keeping handguns at home. It did not directly address prohibitions on carrying guns in public.
Once the Supreme Court finally said that the Second Amendment granted an individual right, that right could not be kept indoors.
But the Ninth Circuit said in the Peruta decision that Heller implies “a law-abiding citizen’s ability to carry a gun outside the home for self-defense fell within the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms for the purpose of self-defense.” In other words, the reasoning of the Heller case goes beyond the actual holding of the case, beyond possession of guns at home.
If we forget about the anti-gun culture that predominates in most big American cities and about the decades of anti-gun legislation that we have gotten used to, it’s hard to disagree with Peruta. Once the Supreme Court finally said that the Second Amendment granted an individual right, that right could not be kept indoors. In the Constitution, there is simply no mention of any limitation of gun rights to the home. “A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” In fact, “keeping” might be something you do only at home, but “bearing” sounds like something you do in public.
A federal trial court in DC has just agreed, in the case of Palmer v.District of Columbia.(554 U.S. 570 [2008]). The decisionfollows the California casein applying Heller to a question almost identical to the one posed in Peruta.
A pattern has emerged. Civil libertarians (with glee) and gun-control advocates (with dread) might agree that the slope is slippery. Before Heller, DC’s laws were less liberal than California’s. DC “totally ban[ned] handgun possession in the home” and “require[d] that any lawful firearm in the home be disassembled or bound by a trigger lock” (Heller, 554 U.S. at 603, 628). That is, no handguns at home in any condition, and other guns such as rifles or shotguns stored in pieces or with a trigger lock. You couldn’t get much closer to a total gun ban. I think that’s what forced the hand of the Supreme Court in the Peruta case. It had to decide whether the Second Amendment meant anything for individuals. Once it did that, and overturned DC’s handgun ban, San Diego’s effective ban on carrying guns openly or concealed seemed the most offensive to Second Amendment rights. The Ninth Circuit had to apply Heller, or at least the logic of Heller. Then the district court in DC followed with its decision in Palmer.
Seven years ago in DC you couldn’t keep a handgun at home. Now, if Palmer holds up, you can take it with you.
