News Release

February 10, 2003

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Cato Legal Scholars File Second Amendment Challenge to Washington, D.C. Gun Ban
Regulations are unconstitutional; residents have the right to defend themselves in their homes

WASHINGTON - Two Cato Institute scholars announced today that they have filed a civil lawsuit in a Washington, D.C. federal court on behalf of six plaintiffs to vindicate the right of D.C. residents to defend themselves in their home. Robert A. Levy, senior fellow in constitutional studies, and Gene Healy, senior editor, joined by two other D.C.-based attorneys, argue in their complaint that "the Second Amendment guarantees individuals a fundamental right to possess a functional, personal firearm, such as a handgun ... within the home." But D.C. officials "enforce a set of laws [that] deprive individuals, including the plaintiffs, of this important right."

The Cato Institute is not itself involved in the litigation, but Cato scholars have argued consistently and vigorously that the Second Amendment guarantees the right of responsible adult citizens to keep and bear arms for self-defense. That is the same position now taken by respected legal scholars − both liberal and conservative − by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in the recent Emerson case, and by the U.S. Justice Department in friend-of-the-court briefs filed before the Supreme Court. Yet the D.C. city council, which is controlled by Congress and indisputably constrained by the Second Amendment, has enacted one of the most draconian gun bans in the nation. No handgun can be registered in the District. Even pistols registered prior to D.C.'s 1976 ban cannot be carried from room to room in the home without a license. Moreover, all firearms in the home must be unloaded and either disassembled, or bound by a trigger lock. In effect, no one in D.C. can possess a functional firearm in his or her own residence.

The lead plaintiff, Shelly Parker, resides in a high-crime neighborhood. As a result of trying to make her neighborhood a better place to live, Ms. Parker has been threatened by drug dealers. She would like to possess a handgun within her home for self-defense, but fears arrest, prosecution, incarceration, and fines because of D.C.'s unconstitutional gun ban. A second plaintiff is a Special Police Officer who carries a handgun to provide security for the Thurgood Marshall Judicial Center. But when he applied for permission to possess a handgun within his home, the D.C. government turned him down. Other plaintiffs include a gay man who has been assaulted on account of his sexual orientation, and the owner of a registered shotgun who cannot lawfully render her gun operational.

The plaintiffs are asking the federal court to prevent D.C. from barring the registration of handguns, banning the possession of functional firearms within the home, and forbidding firearms from being carried from room to room without a license. "This is not about carrying a machine gun on the streets," says Levy. "It's about having a garden-variety handgun in your own home." Healy adds that "the right to keep and bear arms includes the right to defend your property, your family, and your life. No government should be permitted to take that right away."

The lawsuit is Parker v. District of Columbia and the full text of the complaint is available at http://www.cato.org/pubs/legalbriefs/gunsuit.pdf.

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