Judge's Ruling on D.C. Gun Ban an Outrage Says Second Amendment Foundation

1/16/2004

From: Alan Gottlieb of the Second Amendment Foundation, 425-454-7012

BELLEVUE, Wash., Jan. 16 -- U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton's ruling Wednesday that the Second Amendment does not apply to residents in the District of Columbia because the District is not a state is an outrage, said the Second Amendment Foundation, which suggested that Judge Walton delineate other constitutional rights District residents do not have, such as voting or free speech.

"Judge Walton's incredible logic on this issue is appalling," said SAF Founder Alan Gottlieb.

Walton's 64-page opinion rejected a lawsuit against the District's 28-year-old gun ban, challenged by a group of citizens with support from the National Rifle Association. In his opinion, Judge Walton also contended that the Second Amendment does not protect an individual right to bear arms, but was written "to ensure the vitality of state militias," and to protect citizens against a potentially oppressive federal government.

"Judge Walton has reached for a new low in tortured political hypocrisy," Gottlieb stated. "If citizens do not have an individual right to bear arms, as he contends, just how are they supposed to protect themselves against an oppressive government? Certainly not by petitioning for such protection in his courtroom.

"Evidently, at least in Judge Walton's opinion, citizens living within the Washington, D.C. city limits do not enjoy the same constitutional rights as citizens living in neighboring Maryland, Virginia or any of the other fifty states," Gottlieb added. "Just where is the warning sign on the road leading into the nation's capitol telling citizens that 'beyond this point, the Constitution is null and void'?

"Unless I'm mistaken, the District of Columbia is still part of the United States," Gottlieb concluded. "Citizens living there, in the very shadows of liberty's greatest monuments and institutions, possess the same fundamental civil rights as citizens from Miami Beach to Nome. Judge Walton is living in the wrong city, in the wrong country, to say they don't."

The Second Amendment Foundation is the nation's oldest and largest tax-exempt education, research, publishing and legal action group focusing on the Constitutional right and heritage to privately own and possess firearms. Founded in 1974, The Foundation has grown to more than 600,000 members and supporters and conducts many programs designed to better inform the public about the consequences of gun control. SAF has previously funded successful firearms-related suits against the cities of Los Angeles; New Haven, CT; and San Francisco on behalf of American gun owners, a lawsuit against the cities suing gun makers & an amicus brief & fund for the Emerson case holding the Second Amendment as an individual right.