The plaintiff in the Supreme Court case that overturned Washington’s 32-year-old handgun ban has filed a new federal lawsuit against the city.
In a complaint filed Monday in U.S. District Court, Dick Heller and two other plaintiffs allege that the city’s new gun regulations still violate rights guaranteed under the Constitution.
The lawsuit cites the District of Columbia’s unusual ban on firearms that carry more than 12 rounds of ammunition, which includes most semiautomatic handguns.
The suit also claims that the city’s regulations make it all but impossible for residents to keep a gun ready for immediate self defense in the home.
Besides Heller, the other plaintiffs are Absalom Jordan, whose application to register a .22-caliber pistol was denied, and Amy McVey, who must return to D.C. police headquarters two more times to register her weapon after being photographed and fingerprinted and undergoing a background check, according to the lawsuit.
“A robber basically has to make an appointment” for a resident to be able to prepare the weapon for use, Heller’s attorney, Stephen Halbrook, said Monday. Halbrook also called the city’s definition of machine guns “bizarre.”
“The District’s ban on semiautomatic handguns amounts to a prohibition of an entire class of arms that is overwhelmingly chosen by American society for the lawful purpose of self defense in the home,” the lawsuit alleges.
D.C. interim Attorney General Peter Nickles said the suit came as no surprise and that he expects a long legal fight as the issue makes it way through the courts.
“I think there’s a fundamental disagreement with the intent of the Supreme Court’s decision,” said Nickles.
