Big Legal Victory for Carrying Handguns Outside the Home in City That Had Banned the Practice

WASHINGTON (TheBlaze/AP) — A federal judge has ruled that the District of Columbia's ban on carrying handguns outside the home is unconstitutional.

In a 19-page ruling made public Saturday, U.S. District Judge Frederick J. Scullin concluded that the Second Amendment gives people the right to carry a gun outside their home for self-defense.

The lawsuit challenging the city's ban was filed in 2009 by three District of Columbia residents, a New Hampshire resident and the Washington state-based Second Amendment Foundation.

The group's lawyer, Alan Gura, said he was pleased with the decision. Here's some of what he posted after the ruling:

With this decision...the nation’s last explicit ban of the right to bear arms has bitten the dust. Obviously, the carrying of handguns for self-defense can be regulated. Exactly how is a topic of severe and serious debate, and courts should enforce constitutional limitations on such regulation should the government opt to regulate. But totally banning a right literally spelled out in the Bill of Rights isn’t going to fly.

The city has the option to appeal the ruling.