The U.S. Department of Justice is suing the District of Columbia’s Metropolitan Police Department over its restrictive gun laws, the DOJ announced Monday.
While gun owners in D.C. are required to register their firearms with the Metropolitan Police, and the District’s concealed carry permits are among the most restricted in the country, local laws also prohibit registration of several types of firearms, including semi-automatic AR-style rifles – essentially constituting a so-called assault weapons ban. This represents an “unconstitutional incursion into the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens seeking to own protected firearms for lawful purposes,” the DOJ said in a statement released Monday.
“MPD’s current pattern and practice of refusing to register protected firearms is forcing residents to sue to protect their rights and to risk facing wrongful arrest for lawfully possessing protected firearms,” the statement continued.
“Today’s action from the Department of Justice’s new Second Amendment Section underscores our ironclad commitment to protecting the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding Americans,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in the Monday statement. “Washington, D.C.’s ban on some of America’s most popular firearms is an unconstitutional infringement on the Second Amendment – living in our nation’s capital should not preclude law-abiding citizens from exercising their fundamental constitutional right to keep and bear arms.”
The DOJ’s announcement refers to a 2008 Supreme Court ruling, District of Columbia v. Heller, in which the Court found that the Second Amendment protects the rights of law-abiding citizens to own semi-automatic handguns for lawful pursuits such as self-defense. Despite the ruling, D.C.’s gun registration laws have continued to prevent ownership of protected firearms, the DOJ asserts.
“Law-abiding citizens throughout our nation’s capital are facing wrongful arrests due to the enforcement of unconstitutional laws,” noted the DOJ statement.
This comes after the Trump administration deployed National Guard troops to D.C. this summer in a widely publicized crackdown on crime, leading to increased arrests and as of Aug. 22, “91 illegal firearm seizures,” which AG Bondi then touted as evidence of the operation’s success.
For D.C. residents, it seems this latest federal intervention could lead to a long-awaited expansion of liberty, but some 2A advocates say the DOJ’s actions leave a lot to be desired in the way of support for the Second Amendment. The administration has continued to defend federal gun control laws in court in high-profile cases such as United States v. Hemani, an upcoming Supreme Court case in which the government argues that marijuana users cannot legally own firearms.
“Rather than support good Supreme Court vehicles, the Trump DOJ has chosen to game the system and throw its weight behind bad cases likely to strengthen the government’s power and weaken individual liberty,” noted a November press release from the 2A advocate group Firearms Policy Coalition.
After President Trump signed an executive order in February titled “Protecting Second Amendment Rights,” the DOJ this year made several moves to bolster gun rights. The agency has thrown its support behind challenges to another AWB law in Illinois; announced the ATF is reviewing several Biden-era gun restrictions, from the FFL Zero Tolerance Policy to the Pistol Brace Ban and the "Engaged in the Business" rule; ended some export restrictions on firearms; proposed a new rule to restore Second Amendment rights to some felons; and formed the new Second Amendment Rights Section under the DOJ's civil rights division.
