D.C.’s Revised Gun-Control Laws Upheld by Judge
Gun-control laws that Washington, D.C., amended after the Supreme Court struck down a handgun ban as too restrictive are not unconstitutional, a federal judge ruled Thursday.
“The District of Columbia knows gun violence,” U.S. District Judge James Boasberg wrote, going on to describe the nation’s capital as the “murder capital” of America.
“The people of this city, acting through their elected representatives, have sought to combat gun violence and promote gun safety,” the 62-page opinion continues. “The court finds that they have done so in a constitutionally permissble manner.”
In bolstering his opinion, Boasberg pointed to “the violence of the more recent past,” including the seven children shot outside the National Zoo on Easter Monday in 2000, a triple murder at a tavern in 2003, five dead in a South Capitol Street shooting in 2010 and the 12 killed in the Washington Navy Yard a few months ago.
“These numbers are just a few of the lives lost to guns in our city’s recent memory,” Boasberg said.
More: Courthouse News Service
