Palmer vs. D.C. Decision = Constitutional Carry?

Here’s the deal: I failed Constitutional law the first time around in college and had to take it again, so take everything in this post as my opinion, and don’t drive up to DC and start carrying concealed tomorrow based on my opinion.

Basically, the Judge ruled that two portions of the current gun laws in Washington DC are unconstitutional. Specifically 7-2502 (this covers gun registration) and 22-4504 (this covers concealed carry):

It gets better:

Furthermore, this injunction prohibits the District from completely banning the carrying of handguns in public for self-defense by otherwise qualified non-residents based solely on the fact that they are not residents of the District.

This seems to open the doors for all of us who live outside of DC to at least have the option of carrying in DC (or that the powers that be will need a reason other than us not being residents of the district to keep us from carrying).

As far as I can tell, this court order is effective immediately.

In my not-a-lawyer-just-a-college-dropout-blogger-opinion, constitutional carry is currently the law of the land in DC until they establish some sort of carry laws that will jive with the opinion of the judge. I’m certain that Andrew Branca will chime in in the comments below and tell me I’m completely wrong, and that’s okay.

I certainly don’t want to be the test case, but I like where this whole thing is headed. Yay freedom.

You should really take about 5 minutes and read the whole opinion from the Judge. It’s 19 pages, but most of it is triple spaced so it reads really fast and easy.

(H/T Miguel on the Constitutional Carry thing)