In The Hill newspaper: Will D.C. court’s decision on concealed guns be the tipping point?

Jul 28, 2017 | Featured

Dr. John Lott has his newest piece in The Hill newspaper on Tuesday’s DC Federal Circuit Court decision regarding DC’s ban on concealed handguns.  The piece starts this way:

As of July 3, there were just 124 concealed handgun permit holders in Washington, D.C.

But, after a two-to-one federal Circuit court decision on Tuesday morning striking down D.C. ’s current concealed handgun law, the district has a chance to become like the 42 states with right-to-carry laws.

If it were on par with those states, D.C. would have about 48,000 permits. Right now, poor people in particular have no real hope of being able to get a permit in D.C.

Over 16.3 million Americans currently have concealed handgun permits. All fifty states issue permits, but eight of them are very restrictive, like D.C. In the 42 right-to-carry states, an average of 8 percent of adults have permits.

D.C. ’s virtual ban on concealed handguns was in the spotlight after the recent shooting in Alexandria, Va., where members of Congress and several congressional aides were left defenseless because of D.C. ’s ban on carry by non-residents.

Trapped by a 10- to 15-foot fence with only one exit, it is a miracle that only five people were wounded at the Republican baseball practice. If Rep. Steve Scalise (D-La.) hadn’t attended the practice with his armed security detail, attacker James Hodgkinson would have been shooting Congressmen and Senators like fish in a barrel.

Next time we may not be so lucky, since only members of congressional leadership have security details.

At least four of the Congressmen who were shot at had concealed handgun permits from their home states. They are Gary Palmer (R-Ala.), Mo Brooks (R-Ala.), Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.), and Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.). One aide also had a permit.

However, since it was illegal for them to carry in D.C. , and would be returning to the Capitol after practice, they could not legally have brought their guns.

Brooks and Loudermilk’s aide both believe that they could have quickly ended the attack.

The aide, who asked for anonymity, has gone through active shooter training and was just 15 to 20 yards away from the shooter. He believes that, from his vantage point behind a car, he could have shot Hodgkinson “probably 4 minutes” before Capitol police officer David Bailey was wounded. . . . .

The rest of the piece is available here.

johnrlott

2 Comments

  1. Fred Miller

    The council has already said that they’re going to request an en banque review of this ruling. We also have to assume that they’ll make it so difficult to get a permit that very few people will apply. We can expect huge fees, expensive and long mandatory training classes, multiple trips to police station, visit and sign-off from their doctor, etc. How sad.

    • Bob Dabbo

      requesting en banc is easier than getting it. Hard to now if this is the final say or not

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