A three-judge panel on the D.C. Court of Appeals has thrown out the District of Columbia’s gun ban, citing an individual right to bear arms in the Second Amendment.

Which means residents of D.C. may soon no longer need to result to wearing whistles to thwart off violent attacks.

The suit was filed by legal whiz (and Agitator reader) Alan Gura, and includes a few of my former colleagues at Cato, including the brilliant Bob Levy. Congratulations are in order all around. This is a huge ruling, one that could well facilitate a showdown at the U.S. Supreme Court.

Gene Healy has more details. His comment about the NRA is worth repeating. The organization has fought this suit every step of the way. The question is, why?

The NRA has said it’s because they don’t think the current makeup of the U.S. Supreme Court is right for a Second Amendment case. Maybe. But it is the most conservative court we’ve had in at least a generation. A less charitable explanation for the NRA’s opposition may be that the organization didn’t want a suit to go forward that didn’t include its name.

Of course, now that the case has made history (I don’t think that’s an exaggeration), the organization has to explain to its members not only why the group wasn’t behind the most important Second Amendment victory in a long, long time, but why they actively opposed it each step of the way.

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 10th, 2007 at 7:26 am by Radley Balko and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.