Trump administration making the Second Amendment great again in DC



The recent federal takeover of Washington, D.C., appears to have had the intended effect of improving public safety, and the Trump administration is now on a roll, working not only to clean up the streets but to make private gun ownership great again in America's capital.

One major step the administration has taken is to make the process of applying for concealed-carry permits easier. According to a recent report from Fox News Digital, Trump's Making D.C. Safe and Beautiful Task Force is doing just that.

'President Trump is not only stopping violent crime in Washington, D.C.; he is also streamlining the permitting process for law-abiding residents.'

Trump established the task force — comprising members of the Departments of the Interior, Homeland Security, and Transportation; the FBI; the ATF; area U.S. Attorney’s Offices; and other entities — in March through an executive order, directing it to, among other things, collaborate "with appropriate local government entities to provide assistance to increase the speed and lower the cost of processing concealed carry license requests in the District of Columbia."

Since then, the average permitting process time has been reduced "from several months to just five days," White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers told Fox News.

"President Trump is not only stopping violent crime in Washington, D.C.; he is also streamlining the permitting process for law-abiding residents who want the ability to protect themselves and their families," Rogers added.

RELATED: 'Beautiful, clean, and safe': Trump assembling A-team to crack down on DC crime, beautify city

Kent Nishimura/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The task force appears to have helped shorten the firearm registration process in the district as well, according to Fox News. Whereas D.C. residents used to wait up to four months for a registration appointment with the Metropolitan Police Department, they may now book an appointment for the following day. Walk-in appointments are even available now too.

The Making D.C. Safe and Beautiful Task Force is also exploring other ways to expand legal access to gun ownership in D.C., which has some of the strictest gun restrictions in the country despite the Heller and Bruen decisions from the Supreme Court. One idea on the table is CCP reciprocity with other states. Another is allowing women with a CCP to carry in their purses or handbags rather than on their persons, Fox News said.

'Imagine if DC's government adopted crime control measures for a year or three. DC might actually become a safe and vibrant community again.'

U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro is likewise taking gun-related matters into her own hands, declining to issue felony charges against those carrying rifles and shotguns, according to the Washington Post. D.C. bans carrying rifles and shotguns except in rare cases, and first-time violators can face up to five years in prison. However, a new policy created by the DOJ and its solicitor general changes the enforcement of this local law.

While Pirro reiterated that her office will still pursue cases of violent gun offenders and those engaged in firearms trafficking, she told the Post that the general ban against carrying rifles and shotguns "is clearly a violation of the Supreme Court’s holdings."

"Nothing in this memo from the Department of Justice and the Office of Solicitor General precludes the United States Attorney’s Office from charging a felon with the possession of a firearm, which includes a rifle, shotgun, and attendant large-capacity magazine pursuant to D.C. Code 22-4503. What it does preclude is a separate charge of possession of a registered rifle or shotgun," Pirro told the Post.

Pirro's office has not indicated that it will change its policies about prosecuting illegal ownership of handguns, which are used in the majority of gun-related crimes in D.C., the Post reported.

RELATED: Jeanine Pirro rips into reporter over crime in DC: 'You tell these families crime has dropped!'

Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call Inc. via Getty Images

John Boch, the executive director of the Second Amendment advocacy group Guns Save Life, is cheering these changes implemented in D.C. by the Trump administration.

"For generations, statist politicians have told us that gun control is the answer to the gang violence in our cities. In reality, crime control was all that was needed. Targeting good guys with guns doesn't reduce violent crime. It makes it worse. Because criminals don't care about what they see as silly laws," Boch told Blaze News.

"President Donald Trump's team has opted to go with crime control instead of failed gun control to address crime across America, and for the last week or so in Washington, D.C., in particular," Boch continued, noting that these federal interventions have made progress in just a week.

"Imagine if D.C.'s government adopted crime control measures for a year or three. D.C. might actually become a safe and vibrant community again."

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Felon with armed robbery convictions still has 2nd Amendment rights and cannot be charged for possessing firearm, judge rules



A federal judge in Illinois has ruled that a felon did not lose his Second Amendment right to own a firearm, even after he had been convicted of multiple gun-related crimes.

The astonishing ruling stems from an alleged robbery in Chicago in September 2021. At the time, Glen Price supposedly robbed three men on a CTA train. When police searched Price, they reportedly found a stolen credit card, cocaine, a 9mm handgun, and extra ammunition.

As Price, now 37, had already been convicted of felony armed robbery three times in the past, federal law prohibited him from owning a gun. So officers charged Price with possessing a firearm as a felon, a federal statute with a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years.

On November 2, however, the federal case against Price was dismissed after U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman, a Clinton appointee, determined that the statute prohibiting felons from possessing firearms was unconstitutional. That law "imposes a far greater burden on the right to keep and bear arms than the historical categorical exclusions from the people's Second Amendment right," Gettleman wrote in the 22-page decision.

Gettleman said he based his ruling on the 2022 SCOTUS case New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen. In that 6-3 decision, the justices struck down a New York state law requiring people to demonstrate "proper cause" when seeking a permit to carry a concealed handgun.

Gettleman said that Bruen compelled the government to "provide evidence of a historical analogue that is both comparably justified and comparably burdensome of the right to keep and bear arms." The judge said he went all the way back to 1677 but couldn't find historical precedent for a similar prohibition on criminals possessing firearms.

He also said that the "plague" of violence in some communities did not override the need for historical precedent that "authorized capital punishment and estate forfeiture for felonies" as demanded by Bruen. While there are "strong policy reasons" for trying to prevent violent crime, "lifetime disarmament" is not "rooted in our Nation’s history and tradition," Gettleman asserted, quoting from another 2023 federal ruling.

Bill Kushner, a police affairs consultant for WLS-TV, argued that the statute preventing felons from possessing weapons came about in the 1930s and then expanded in the 1960s for good reason: it helps prevent violent crime. "The carjackings, the shootings, these are not just demonized youth," Kushner said. "These are people that feel that they have a free hand to do whatever they want without fear of repercussions."

Even Richard Pearson, the executive director of Illinois State Rifle Association, disagreed with Gettleman's decision. "I'm opposed to criminals who have been charged with violent crimes and convicted of those violent crimes from getting a handgun or an FOID card or concealed carry permit of any kind," Pearson said.

U.S. attorneys have already filed an appeal in the case, Law&Crime reported. The outlet also stated that the case "seems fated to find its way before the U.S. Supreme Court."

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SCOTUS vacates ruling that upheld Massachusetts gun control law



The Supreme Court of the United States has vacated a ruling that upheld a recent gun control law passed in Massachusetts. A lower court must now reconsider the law in light of a recent SCOTUS ruling regarding the Second Amendment.

On Monday, SCOTUS vacated the district court's decision regarding Morin v. Lyver. A Massachusetts resident filed the suit after he was barred from purchasing a handgun because he was convicted of unlawfully carrying a firearm back in 2004. The Massachusetts law in question forbids the purchase of a handgun by anyone who has ever been convicted of a nonviolent misdemeanor involving a firearm. It also requires a license to buy a pistol.

Both the district and appeals courts upheld the law. However, SCOTUS has since vacated that decision and asked an appeals court to reconsider now that SCOTUS took a broader view of the Second Amendment in its recent ruling in New York State Rifle & Pistol Assn., Inc. v. Bruen.

Many Second Amendment advocates cheered the 6-3 Bruen ruling, which came down last June. Justice Clarence Thomas, who wrote the majority opinion in the case, asserted that "because the State of New York issues public-carry licenses only when an applicant demonstrates a special need for self-defense, we conclude that the State's licensing regime violates the Constitution."

Thomas also added that the "constitutional right to bear arms in public for self-defense is not ‘a second-class right'" and that he and the other concurring justices "know of no other constitutional right that an individual may exercise only after demonstrating to government officers some special need."

The order to vacate the decision is brief, unsigned, and has no dissents. It reads in total: "21-1160 MORIN, ALFRED V. LYVER, WILLIAM, ET AL. The petition for a writ of certiorari is granted. The judgment is vacated, and the case is remanded to the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit for further consideration in light of New York State Rifle & Pistol Assn., Inc. v. Bruen, 597 U. S. ___ (2022)."

Horowitz: What Supreme Court ruling? Blue-state Dems continue to block right to carry



Democrats might not believe in the Constitution, but unlike Republicans who slavishly worship the federal courts, Democrats understand that courts wield “neither force nor will” in implementing their rulings on society. This is becoming increasingly evident for those seeking to defend themselves in the seven states that do not automatically issue carry permits.

Last week, as I was headed out the door, my 12-year-old asked me why I wasn’t immediately carrying in light of the ruling in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen, stating unambiguously that Maryland’s requirement for a “good and substantial reason” to carry is unconstitutional. I had to explain to him that in Maryland the Constitution doesn’t matter and that ultimately, a court cannot mandate a particular permitting scheme. “Oh, so you mean the state will just take forever to rewrite the permitting process and then throw up obstacles at every step?” Well, now my son knows why we want to flee from this tyrannical state.

We all remember the images from red states the minute the Supreme Court redefined marriage in Obergefell after thousands of years of history and tradition dating back to Adam and Eve. Within less than two weeks after the court invented a right from thin air and declared our entire history and tradition unconstitutional, all of the remaining states that did not recognize gay unions as marriages were issuing licenses. There were no court cases in the lower courts, waiting time for changes to the state’s marriage laws to be rewritten, or dilatory tactics employed by the states to thwart the ruling. Marriage had been redefined for all time the minute the ruling came down from the majority led by Justice Anthony Kennedy.

Contrast that to the ruling in Bruen, which categorically stated that it was unconstitutional based on the plain meaning of the Bill of Rights for seven states to deny the right to carry. Yet here we are, two weeks later, and there is no guarantee that any of us will be able to carry soon, even though these are the very states with exploding crime rates.

To this day, Maryland is still requiring an extensive permitting process to even purchase a gun for your home for the first time, much less carry outside your home. The state is still banning numerous common 9mm pistols and rifles, as well as sale of magazines with more than 10 rounds. Yet despite a remand order from the Supreme Court, Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh was defiant, claiming these guns “pose grave risks to public safety,” and asserted that “Marylanders have a right to be protected from these dangerous weapons.” He noted that “Despite the Bruen ruling, the state’s law remains in effect.” The Massachusetts AG promised to continue enforcing the current law too.

Where was this sentiment when the courts ruled that red states had to treat men like women and non-marriages like marriages? The Maryland attorney general is actually not wrong about the power of the Supreme Court, just about the Constitution. In other words, a court doesn’t rip a statute out of the books. It’s just that if the state takes action against someone pursuant to that law, the courts will overturn the conviction. However, in order to get a permit of any sort, even on par with the liberally issued ones in the “shall issue” states, the state needs to come up with a new licensing scheme. It’s quite evident some of the blue states like Maryland will take their time.

Although the Maryland governor, Larry Hogan, did issue an order to the state police to end the “good and substantial reason” limitation, he did mention that the order has “no impact on other permitting requirements and protocols.” The expensive and cumbersome process is still bogging me down, something we would never accept for any other fundamental right spelled out in plain language in the Constitution.

New York went a step further. The state responded to Bruen by toughening its carry laws! Just before the July 4 weekend, the state legislature passed a law banning carry in the following places: government buildings, health care facilities, places of worship, libraries, public playgrounds and parks, day care facilities, summer camps, addiction and mental health centers, shelters, public transit, bars, theaters, stadiums, museums, polling places, and casinos. The law also creates an automatic “no carry” standard as the default on private property unless the owners affirmatively permit it.

Gov. Kathy Hochul just signed the bill, as if Bruen never happened.

\u201cWe\u2019ve taken swift action to protect New Yorkers.\n\nOur new legislation includes restrictions on where those with concealed carry permits are allowed to bring their guns.\u201d
— Governor Kathy Hochul (@Governor Kathy Hochul) 1656792590

In other words, the blue states are responding to the court ruling by saying, “All right, people generally have the right to carry some sort of firearm under some sort of circumstance in some place.” They will engage in a game of legal “catch me if you can,” forcing a new lawsuit on each and every regulation. Remember, it took 14 years to apply the unambiguous language of Heller to the right to carry outside one’s home.

New Jersey plans to increase training requirements, limit places people can carry, similar to New York, impose microstamping technology on guns, and a public nuisance law that will allow the government to harass gun dealers. The microstamping was pioneered by California, when the state banned any guns produced after the date of the microstamping law without that technology being on the guns. It essentially precludes people from owning many popular guns on the market.

For its part, California is looking to restrict concealed carry to those 21 and older; require in-person interviews with the applicant and at least three character references; and allow sheriffs and police chiefs to consider applicants' public statements as they weigh whether the individual is dangerous.

Delaware also responded to the court’s ruling by further banning more common weapons, even after the Supreme Court remanded a case on “assault weapons” bans back to the lower courts, in clear indication that such laws are precluded by Bruen.

The blue-state strategy was best summed up by UCLA law professor Adam Winkler. “This case is not the final word,” said Winkler. “It’s the beginning of a multi-year battle over concealed-carry regulations.”

Obviously, what they are doing is illegal because it violates an undeniable right written in plain language in the Constitution. But they are not wrong that the states and other branches of government can use other levers of power to practically limit the court’s application. Perhaps red states need to learn a thing or two for the next time the federal courts issue a categorical right for men to use female bathrooms or for a horse and a donkey to get a marriage license. Courts aren’t the final say; the Constitution is. In the case of self-defense, they two happen to have finally aligned.