Eight years after the Supreme Court struck down Washington, D.C.’s long-standing ban on handguns, the city is again at the forefront of a legal battle over the Second Amendment. Gun rights advocates have scored a series of victories in the District since the high court’s 2008 ruling. They are pressing this month to make it easier to carry firearms on the streets of the nation’s capital, the Washington Post reports. Pending cases have drawn the attention of gun rights groups and Republican attorneys general from more than a dozen states who are among those asking federal judges to find D.C.’s restrictions on concealed-carry unconstitutional.
Local officials have been forced time and again to rewrite gun laws since the Supreme Court used a D.C. case to declare that individuals have the right to gun ownership unrelated to military service. The decision cleared the way for D.C. residents to keep handguns in their homes and is driving the attempt to expand the number of people who can carry concealed weapons in public. At issue for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit is the city’s system that requires residents to demonstrate a “good reason to fear injury” or show a “proper reason,” such as transporting valuables, to get a permit. Oral arguments are set for next Wednesday.