Court rules against handgun ban; reactions mixed

Early last July, DC resident Michael Roberts was riding the Metro's green line to work. At the Columbia Heights metro stop, two men betwen their late teens and early twenties approached Roberts. One of the men brandished a gun and ordered Roberts to give them his wallet, iPod, and phone. Roberts complied. Although he made it to work, Roberts was shaken by this gun crime, which has plagued the city for years.In response to a blistering crime wave that terrorized residents in the 70s, the city enacted a law banning ownership of handguns in 1976. At the time, DC government and law enforcement officers believed that denying the Constitutional right for individuals to bear arms was the most effective way to restore public safety.

But last week, the United States Supreme Court justices felt otherwise. In a 5-4-decision ruling, the Court struck down the ban and asserted that DC residents, like all Americans everywhere, have a right to own guns for self-defense and hunting.

The ruling has Stacey Williams, 23, confused and worried. "We have a lot of people getting killed by guns already," said Williams, a mother of two boys, a two-year old and a three-month-old. "Allowing guns now will only make it worse."

The Court ruling discouraged Bobby Blakeney too. "I think the justices should rethink their decision," said Blakeney, a safety technician at Job Barnard Elementary School in Northwest DC. Two of Blakeney's cousins were paralyzed from gun crimes and she lost a third to handgun violence in 2007. The pain still weighs heavy on her heart.

"That was last year. She was in South Carolina, standing on a porch talking and drinking," she said. "One of my cousin's ex-boyfriend just drove up and shot at everybody on the porch.That was my favorite cousin," she sighed, her eyes welling.

But Blakeney is resigned to the Court's ruling."I don't think there will be any change in the number of gun crimes in the District," she said."People were carrying guns illegally way before this law came to be."

Kurt Schmoke, dean of the Howard University Law School and former mayor of Baltimore, doesn't think the ban will bring about a significant change in crime in the city.

The ruling, allows the city opportunity to create new laws, which will pass the Supreme Court's constitutional test, he said. "The District government was given great discretion on what kind of law they can make but the only restriction is that the city cannot ban handguns outright," he said. "That is what was called unconstitutional."

He said the DC government should review the Supreme Court's decision and then pass new regulations concerning the selling and ownership of guns.

Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter shares Schmoke's interpretation that the ruling, while asserting the Second Amendment right to own guns, allowed cities to have laws regulating gun ownership. Nutter read part of the Supreme Court ruling in a press conference at City Hall shortly after the court handed down its ruling, the National Newspaper Publishers Association reported.

"In its decision today, it says the following, 'We do not read the Second Amendment to protect the right of citizens to carry arms for any sort of confrontation, just as we do not read the First Amendment to protect the right of citizens to speak for any purpose,'" Nutter read from page 22 of the Court ruling.

Nutter added that in page 54 of the ruling the Court goes on to say, "Like most rights, the right secured by the Second Amendment is not unlimited."

Schmoke and Nutter said they interpreted the Court ruling as saying that the Second Amendment rights are limited, thus giving city legislators a go ahead to continue efforts to enact gun laws.

Phil Mendelson, DC Councilmember-at-Large, did just that on Tuesday. He introduced a bill allowing handgun registration and ownership in the District. But the bill proposes a waiting period for gun registration and a mandatory ballistics record for all guns registered. "Ballistics are like fingerprints for a gun, and it's just an added measure for safety," Jason Shedlock, spokesman for Mendelson said.

Still, 17-year-old Lisa Black, a Southeast resident, is not convinced the new gun regulations the Court ruling allows will make the city any safer."They just made it harder to be a teenager in DC," she groused.

And Mrs. Williams described how she would change her life after this ruling. "I will be more cautious of my surroundings and when I take my kids out I will be more careful with them," she said. "And I just won't stay outside as late as I usually do. I won't take my children out to play in certain areas at certain times.