By Dave Workman
The Trump administration has filed a federal lawsuit against the District of Columbia, challenging the ban on so-called “assault weapons” and asserting the defendants “have acted and are continuing to act in blatant disregard to our Constitution and the rulings of our Nation’s highest court.”
The case is known as United States v. District of Columbia. The complaint was signed by Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, who appears to be leading the charge on Second Amendment-related litigation.
The move brought cheers from one national gun rights organization, and a flood of interesting headlines ranging from “just-the-facts” to near hysteria.
- CNN: Trump administration sues DC over its gun laws
- BBC: Justice Department sues Washington DC over banning semi-automatic gun registration
- New York Times: Trump Officials Sue to Loosen D.C.’s Gun Laws
- Raw Story: Trump admin lawsuit aims to flood DC with AR-15 rifles for ‘common use’
The National Rifle Association noted the lawsuit “follows recent DOJ involvement in other challenges to similar prohibitions.”
“In June,” NRA recalled, “the DOJ filed an amicus brief in Barnett v. Raoul, arguing that Illinois’s prohibitions on “assault weapons” and “large-capacity” magazines violate the Second Amendment; Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon even participated in oral argument. In September, the DOJ filed another amicus brief in ANJRPC v. Platkin, an NRA challenge to New Jersey’s bans on “assault firearms” and “large-capacity” magazines.”
But it is the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms—the national grassroots gun rights organization—which is cheering the move, perhaps underscoring the lawsuit’s significance.
“The significance of the administration’s action here cannot be over-stated,” CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb observed. “The Trump administration is taking the fight to restore Second Amendment rights literally to the belly of the beast. This lawsuit sends a message to every other anti-gun jurisdiction that the days of dancing around, or completely ignoring, Supreme Court rulings in Heller, McDonald and Bruen have come to an end.”
According to the nine-page complaint, filed by the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division’s newly-launched Second Amendment Section, the administration is asking the court for “A declaration that DC Defendants are engaged in a pattern or practice of conduct by law enforcement officers that deprives persons of rights, privileges, or immunities secured or protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States in violation of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, 34 U.S.C. § 5 12601(b).”
This includes, but is not limited to, “A declaration that the pattern and practice by DC Defendants of prohibiting registration of the AR-15 by law-abiding citizens violates the Second Amendment; and a declaration that the pattern and practice by DC Defendants of prohibiting registration of all other firearms without an automatic firing mechanism and otherwise protected under the Second Amendment that law-abiding citizens possess violates the Second Amendment.”
The administration also wants a permanent injunction prohibiting the District from “arresting and levying fines against otherwise law-abiding citizens for possessing the AR-15 and all other firearms protected by the Second Amendment and being possessed or used for lawful purposes, and a permanent injunction requiring all DC Defendants within a reasonable period of time to enable and allow the registration of firearms protected under the Second Amendment by law-abiding citizens.”
This lawsuit follows the earlier DOJ action against the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department over its deliberate foot-dragging on gun permit applications, and the Virgin Islands for its pattern of permit process violations.
CCRKBA’s Gottlieb summed up the situation.
“We are proud to see the Trump administration stand up for the constitutional and civil rights of Americans who want to exercise their Second Amendment rights,” he said. “This lawsuit shows the night and day difference between this administration and the previous one that attacked the right to keep and bear arms at every turn.”
Workman is editor-in-chief at TheGunMag.com
