Washington, D.C. Files It’s Appeal In Parker v. D.C.

The District Of Columbia today formally set forth the legal basis for it’s petition for an appeal of the decision earlier this year that struck down a decades-old gun ban as unconstitutional:

The District today asked the Supreme Court to uphold the city’s ban on private ownership of handguns, saying the appeals court decision that overturned the law “drastically departs from the mainstream of American jurisprudence.”

Most legal experts believe the court will accept the case, which could lead to a historic decision next year on whether the ambiguously worded Second Amendment to the Constitution protects private gun ownership or only imparts a civic right related to maintaining state militias.

The District argues in its petition for review that its law–one of the toughest handgun bans in the nation–should be upheld regardless of whether the court sides with the so-called “individualist” or “collective” legal theories.

“It is eminently reasonable to permit private ownership of other types of weapons, including shotguns and rifles, but ban the easily concealed and uniquely dangerous modern handgun,” states the petition, filed by District Attorney General Linda Singer. It adds: “Whatever right the Second Amendment guarantees, it does not require the District to stand by while its citizens die.”

“We’re going to fight to uphold a law that . . . has public support,” Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) said at a news conference outside D.C. police headquarters. “The only possible outcome of more handguns in the home is more violence. Our appeal will help the District of Columbia be able to continue to reduce gun violence.”

Because, you know, there’s been so much less gun violence in the District of Columbia in the thirty years that the handgun ban has been in effect.

Oh, never mind.