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Federal Judge Delivers Major Blow to DC’s Concealed Carry Law
Image source: George Frey/Getty Images

Federal Judge Delivers Major Blow to DC’s Concealed Carry Law

"Understandable, but overzealous."

WASHINGTON (TheBlaze/AP) -- A federal judge in Washington, D.C., has issued a preliminary injunction that halts enforcement of a provision of the district's strict gun law. The decision conflicts with a previous judge's assessment of the law earlier this year.

A Utah teacher is shown how to handle a handgun by instructor Clint Simon at  a concealed-weapons training class to 200 Utah teachers on December 27, 2012 in West Valley City, Utah. The Utah Shooting Sports Council said it would waive its $50 fee for concealed-weapons training for Utah teachers. (Credit: Getty Images) Getty Images

“The enshrinement of constitutional rights necessarily takes certain policy choices off the table,” District Judge Richard Leon wrote in a 46-page opinion, the Washington Post reported.

“The District’s understandable, but overzealous, desire to restrict the right to carry in public a firearm for self-defense to the smallest possible number of law-abiding, responsible citizens is exactly the type of policy choice the Justices had in mind,” Leon said, referring to the 2008 Supreme Court opinion, District of Columbia v. Heller, which struck down the district's gun ban and held that the Second Amendment guarantees the individual right to keep and bear arms.

The ruling Tuesday clashes with a ruling from U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, who sided with the city in a separate dispute and declined to issue a preliminary injunction. Opponents have appealed that ruling.

The city's gun law has been the subject of a lengthy legal dispute. Opponents of the law object to a provision that requires people who want to carry a gun in the city to show a "good reason to fear injury" or another "proper reason" to carry the weapon.

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