D.C. Circuit Issues Permanent Injunction: ‘Good Reason’ for Concealed Carry Unconstitutional

On Tuesday the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled that D.C.’s “good reason” requirement for concealed carry permit issuance is unconstitutional.

As a result, the court issued a permanent injunction against requiring concealed carry applicants to show “good reason” for wanting to carry a gun.

The ruling was handed down in Wrenn v. District of Columbia; a case brought by the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF).

SAF sent Breitbart News a press release on the ruling. That release quotes D.C. Circuit Judge Thomas Beall Griffith pointing out that the “good reason” requirement cannot survive the test of District of Columbia v. Heller (2008). Griffith said:

At the Second Amendment’s core lies the right of responsible citizens to carry firearms for personal self-defense beyond the home, subject to longstanding restrictions…The District’s good-reason law is necessarily a total ban on exercises of that constitutional right for most D.C. residents. That’s enough to sink this law under (the 2008 U.S. Supreme Court’s Heller ruling).

The SAF press release quoted group founder and executive vice president Alan Gottlieb saying, “Today’s ruling contains some powerful language that affirms what we have argued for many years, that requiring a so-called ‘good cause’ to exercise a constitutionally-protect right does not pass the legal smell test. We’re particularly pleased that the opinion makes it clear that the Second Amendment’s core generally covers carrying in public for self-defense.”

Gottlieb spoke to Breitbart News after the ruling was issued and he said, “We secured a permanent injunction, which means D.C. cannot enforce the good reason requirement.”

It is interesting to note that when U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez blocked the implementation of California’s “high capacity” magazine ban in late June, he likewise did so by pointing out that the ban could not pass “the simple test of Heller.”

Heller was a reaffirmation that the Founding Fathers wrote the Second Amendment with the intention of hedging in a pre-existing individual right which is in no way tied to or dependent on military or militia service.

AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of Bullets with AWR Hawkins, a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com