D.C.'s partial semi auto ban is safe

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The reason for this is that the Court's ruling does not affect the District's ban on "machine guns," which under DC law includes any gun "which shoots, is designed to shoot, or can be readily converted or restored to shoot semiautomatically, more than 12 shots without manual reloading." This definition includes virtually all semiautomatic handguns. As a result, the District's ban can remain in force for those types of handguns. In essence, the Court's ruling for the most part will only affect revolvers and derringers.
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Heh, such abuse of logic... they're grasping at straws. I imagine the district court will educate them when someone challenges this.

Particularly egregious is this:
Yesterday's decision flips legal logic and common sense on its head. As measured in gun death and injury, handguns are our nation's most lethal category of firearm: accounting for the vast majority of the 30,000 Americans who die from guns each year. They are also our nation's leading murder and suicide tool. Yet the majority opinion offers the greatest offender the strongest legal protection. It's analogous to the Court carving out special constitutional protection for child pornography in a First Amendment case.
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In this time of great economic stress taxpayers would benefit by dissolving government and letting the media run the country. Journalists, especially newspaper journalists, know everything except how to stay in business. That small failing aside, they know what everyone else must do.
 
And if the courts uphold that they can ban "machine guns" which clearly aren't... then they can just redefine the term to include any firearm capable of firing more than 1 shot without manually reloading the chamber... something that is clearly preposterous.
 
I wonder if they (the DC government) insisting on calling semi-auto firearms "machine guns" will result in a ruling that no you cannot ban "machine guns" by any definition.

Or will the Court "make" law and define a "machine gun" on their own, which I am not sure they can do.

Could this really backfire (again) on these people? You would think at this point the rest of the anti-gun organizations would be taking contracts out on these folks.
 
Semiautomatic handguns, also known as pistols, are the most common type of handgun manufactured in America, representing 73 percent of the 1,403,329 handguns manufactured in the United States in 2006 (the last year for which figures are available).
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Hmmmm.......I think they forgot to read the full decision.



.
 
The federal government has a definition for "machine gun" and the DC government has a different definition. Whose definition do you think a federal court will use?

DC would be smart to start redrafting their "machine gun" law ... but DC does not have a record of being smart.
 
This is good not bad, soon Josh will have his head handed to him again and he will be a double loser.

Here is my response if anyone cares:

The Supreme Court said that machine guns can be banned, that is true. But the Supreme Court meant real machine guns, not "machine guns" as one jurisdiction erroneously defines them. 50 states and the federal government define machine guns as fully automatic firearms, not semi-automatic ones. The courts are not going to let D.C. remove a right simply by creating a definition that is not supported by fact. If you truly believe that, you are a very simple man.

The Supreme Court created a very simple test in Heller. If the gun is an "ordinary" and "common" gun and is not overly dangerous (real machine guns) then it is protected. The fact is that of the 50 states that allow handguns, all 50 allow semiautomatic handguns. Semiautomatic handguns are legal under federal law. No other city has banned semiautomatic handguns exclusively, they are only banned in other cities such as Chicago when all handguns are banned. Semiautomatic handguns now outsell revolvers almost 3 to 1 (1,021,260 semiautomatics sold in 2007 compared to 382,069 revolvers according to ATF - http://www.atf.treas.gov/firearms/stats/afmer/afmer2006.pdf). Semiautomatics are now the most common handguns among police and the military as well. Here is D.C. police chief Lanier with her semiautomatic handgun: http://www.flickr.com/photos/9145315@N02/579339160/sizes/l/. These facts expose the obvious, semiautomatic handguns are both common and ordinary and easily meet the Supreme Court's test, regardless of any definition that D.C. attempts to create out of thin air. In the end, the courts will both allow and protect them as well as revolvers, derringers, and single-shot handguns.
 
Huffington Post? Not exactly a credible source. Get Volokh Conspiracy (several of their contributers were cited by Scalia in Heller), Balkanization, SCOTUSBlog, or any of the other big-named legal blogs to say its safe and I'll believe it.

Kharn
 
My P7M8 will only hold 8 rounds but it is still 'banned' by the losers, sorry I meant leaders, of DC.

Their new 'regulations' will never withstand constitutional scrutiny.

SupernovaNole
 
Their new 'regulations' will never withstand constitutional scrutiny.
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Neither did their old regulations, but it still took 32 years to right a major wrong.
 
Guys

This issue is not clear cut until it is tested. Don't let your guard down and allow an AWB to pass assuming it will be struck down.

K
 
Neither did their old regulations, but it still took 32 years to right a major wrong.
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You are right about that. I think however on the heels of the recent decision they will be held in contempt if they ban semi-autos. I can't believe it will require a new case and the time that entails. The Supremes were too clear about their 'in common use' language.

Legal eagles please correct me if I'm wrong.

SupernovaNole
 
the easy fix to this is for the court to simply say that DC has to follow the federal regulations on machine guns. Since DC is a federal district (and are supposed to follow the definitions set forth by ATF God knows how long ago like the rest of the country in the first place), they won't exactly be able to find any sort of way to weasel out of something like that without an injunction (or two) filed against them. At least, that is how it is supposed to work.
 
I guess the big question is will the SCOTUS get involved until and unless a new case comes before them? Or as I suspect, will they simply hide in their hallowed halls and let the DC dolts continue to trample the rights of DC citizens?
 
Will Fenty be a new Andrew Jackson?

"Justice Scalia has made his ruling. Now let him enforce it." :)


But I'm sure none of us are surprised by DC's attempts to skirt this ruling. If they couldn't follow something as short and simple as the 2A, they're going to have an awfully hard time with Scalia's decision. Or anything else written by an adult... :rolleyes:
 
I guess the big question is will the SCOTUS get involved until and unless a new case comes before them? Or as I suspect, will they simply hide in their hallowed halls and let the DC dolts continue to trample the rights of DC citizens?
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I don't think it's reasonable to expect the Supreme Court of the United States to become a law enforcement agency and I don't think it's rational to suggest that they're hiding in their hallowed halls if they don't.

What can and very likely will happen is that a plaintiff with standing (such as someone who owns and is denied the ability to register a semi-auto) will file suit in a federal court. He (through his attorney) will request summary judgment in his favor. Mayor Fenty will do his best to tapdance like Eleanor Powell and the judge will applaud the performance but grant the Plaintiff summary judgment plus costs and fees.
 
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