EDITORIAL: D.C. Circuit panel upholds the right of citizens to carry a concealed weapon

Despite the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2008 Heller decision that the Second Amendment guarantees the right of individuals to own weapons, gun control activists continue to try to erode that constitutional protection.

Their efforts have been successful in some instances, particularly when it comes to limiting the ability of Americans to carry weapons outside the home. Courts in California, New York and New Jersey, for instance, have concluded it’s “reasonable” to essentially ban individuals from packing a weapon for self-defense in public.

But on Tuesday, a three-judge panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit had other thoughts. The court ruled 2-1 that a D.C. law mandating someone show a “good reason to fear injury” before being allowed a concealed carry permit was in violation of the Second Amendment.

“The good-reason law is necessarily a total ban on most D.C. residents’ right to carry a gun in the face of ordinary self-defense needs,” wrote Judge Thomas Griffith for the majority. “Bans on the ability of most citizens to exercise an enumerated right would have to flunk any judicial test that was appropriately written and applied, so we strike the District’s law here.”

This is simple common sense. While the Heller decision allowed for gun regulations, it is simply undeniable that laws requiring individuals to prove a “need” to carry a concealed weapon are in fact intended to limit Second Amendment rights. On what grounds does the state pick and choose which law-abiding citizens are granted the privileges enshrined in the Constitution?

Expect D.C. officials to appeal to the full circuit. Fine. While the U.S. Supreme Court has typically shied away from Second Amendment jurisprudence, this case could prove a suitable vehicle for the justices to address the disparate lower court rulings on this issue.