D.C. Will Not Appeal Loss on Carry Permits

By Dean Weingarten

Arizona -(Ammoland.com)- The government of the District of Columbia has decided not to appeal the Circuit court decision in Wrenn v. D.C.

From foxnews.com:

The city’s attorney general said the decision not to appeal the ruling was a strategic one. He worries if the city were to appeal to the Supreme Court and lose, it would affect similar gun regulations elsewhere including in Maryland, New Jersey and New York.

“I continue to believe the District’s `good reason’ requirement is a common-sense, and constitutional, gun regulation,” District of Columbia Attorney General Karl A. Racine said in a statement. “However, we must reckon with the fact that an adverse decision by the Supreme Court could have wide-ranging negative effects not just on District residents, but on the country as a whole.”

The attorney general acknowledged receiving several phone calls from elected and unelected officials in other jurisdictions worried about the effect of such a ruling against the city. But Racine said the decision was ultimately made in his city’s best interest.

At the Gun Rights Policy Conference a few days ago, two separate opinions were expressed about the possibility of the government of the District of Columbia appealing the decision to the Supreme Court. Both were put forward by intellectual heavy hitters.  I paid attention.

John Lott, the academic well known for his research showing that the carry of concealed guns decreases crime, told me that there would be intense pressure on the D.C. government. The pressure would be against appealing the case, because major leftist entities in the Democrat party would see it as too risky. They feared that the highly restrictive “may issue” schemes that infringe on the exercise of the Second Amendment in New York, New Jersey, Maryland, California, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Connecticutt, and Delaware would be ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

Alan Gura, perhaps the most well known and successful attorney defending the Second Amendment, had a different opinion. In a taped presentation, recorded before the D.C. ruling was made, he believed that the D.C. government would appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court.

John Lott’s prognostication was the correct one.

This shows a sea change in thoughts on the left about court fights on the Second Amendment.

Many on the left now fear what the Supreme Court might do.

The Supreme Court may actually uphold the Constitution. It has routinely failed to do so for decades. For years, they have been reluctant to take obvious, strong, Second Amendment cases.

If, as is likely, President Trump is able to appoint another justice to the Supreme Court, to replace any of the four ideological leftists, or the leftist leaning justice Kennedy, the chances of the Court upholding the Constitution increase enormously.  If President Trump appoints another originalist and textualist in the image of Thomas and Gorsuch, the court could have the first originalist majority in 70 years.
©2017 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.

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About Dean Weingarten:

Dean Weingarten has been a peace officer, a military officer, was on the University of Wisconsin Pistol Team for four years, and was first certified to teach firearms safety in 1973. He taught the Arizona concealed carry course for fifteen years until the goal of constitutional carry was attained. He has degrees in meteorology and mining engineering, and recently retired from the Department of Defense after a 30 year career in Army Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation.