New Challenge May Have
Far Reaching Consequences

Civil rights attorney Alan Gura, the attorney who successfully argued the Heller case, has filed a new federal lawsuit against the District of Columbia. The lawsuit seeks relief from D.C.'s onerous and odious handgun registration scheme on behalf of three DC residents. Under the statute adopted by the DC Council last December, D.C. now bans many ordinary and common handguns based upon silly criteria such as the color of the gun.

The district's modified handgun registration scheme specifically uses the California Roster of Handguns Certified for Sale as a scheme to limit the types of guns district residents can own. Using the California scheme, a handgun bought today, which is on the list, may be unavailable to district residents if the manufacturer fails to pay a fee to extend the "certification" beyond it's expiration date.

The California roster requires certification of all handguns sold by "model." California has interpreted that to be the stocking-number (SKU) of the gun. Thus, two otherwise identical guns except for one wearing finger-grooved rosewood grips versus plain walnut are "different" guns and each must be approved separately. Guns with different finishes can be allowed, but only if the manufacturer submits a form attesting that both guns are identical except for the color of the finish.

Which brings us to plaintiff Tracy Ambeau Hanson, who tried to register her Springfield XD-45, only to be told by District bureaucrats that "her gun was the wrong color."

"Americans are not limited to a government list of approved books, or approved religions," Gura said. A handgun protected by the Second Amendment doesn't need to appear on any government-approved list either. "The Springfield XD-45 is approved for sale in Washington," Gura noted, "so long as it is black, green, or brown, but her bi-tone version is supposedly 'unsafe'."

In another ironic twist, Paul St. Lawrence's gun was rejected, even though it is the same model gun owned by Dick Heller for whom the Supreme Court ordered DC to issue a registration certificate less than a year ago. And Gillian St. Lawrence found that her gun was rejected merely because the manufacturer decided not to pay a fee to keep the gun on the California list.

The requirement to register guns is a constitutionally suspect prior restraint of the right to keep and bear arms to begin with, but to add restrictions based on cosmetic features, such as color, smack of arbitrary and capricious laws. The kind that led to the American Revolution.

If the handgun roster scheme is struck down as unconstitutional, it will impact not only Washington D.C.'s 580,000 residents, but the over 33 million Californians who are currently choked by the same law.