Washington DC's Gun Laws: Carry At Your Own Risk

There has been an interesting development this week regarding the state of concealed carry, this time in Washington, DC. In the case of Palmer v. DC, the US Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled that DC's ban on carrying firearms is unconstitutional. With this decision, barring a stay, so-called Constitutional Carry becomes the law, meaning that any non-felon resident with a properly registered gun can carry it, and any non-resident can also carry under the same conditions. Additionally, Cathy Lanier, Chief of Police, issued an order allowing for carry under those circumstances. Given the state of DC's laws less than a decade ago this is nothing short of shocking. But, and you knew this was coming, it's still not a good idea to carry in DC.

Let's start with the non-resident. I have my concealed carry permit, and as such I can now carry in DC. But the courts did not say that I could carry on Federal property, which precludes museums, monuments, and the like. Since the only reason the average non-resident would go to DC would be for tourism, it doesn't benefit them. Also, DC is surrounded on 3 sides by Maryland, which complicates things as they don't recognize a CCW permit from any other state. Step into Maryland, even by accident, go the wrong way on the Metro, anything, and you're an instant felon. Sound like a bad idea? It is. Also, who wants to be the first to test the law? I'm certainly not clamoring to be that guy.

The same restrictions go for residents, but they have another issue to contend with: exceedingly few of them have a gun to begin with due to DC's onerous registration scheme. The DC government complied with Heller inasmuch as it is possible to get a gun registered, but they made it as difficult and expensive as possible to dissuade people from actually following through on it. Also, as known gun owners, the potential carriers face harassment from the police. Oh, sure, they're supposed to allow it, but does anyone really think the police will just shrug and act like they're OK with it? Not a chance, not in DC, a majority minority city not noted for its even-handed application of law.

This has a long way to go yet. That said, every state in the Union now has a mechanism for concealed carry, some more permissive than others. There will come a day when every state will be "shall-issue", though. Eventually the Supremes will have to weigh in on the circuit splits given that they Incorporated the right, and when they do it looks more and more like they'll have to use strict scrutiny as anything less will undermine McDonald, and that means either "shall-issue" or unrestricted carry, something I find unlikely to be applied universally due to public policy differences across regions.

So stay tuned, and don't do anything stupid like carry in DC. If you do, you do so at your own risk. Want to be famous? Now's your chance, and good luck to you. Alan Gura's got your back.