Restrictions on semiautomatic firearms: Trump administration sues Washington DC over gun laws; cites Second Amendment violations

Donald Trump-led US administration is suing the Washington, DC, government over its gun laws, arguing that restrictions on certain semiautomatic firearms violate the Second Amendment rights. The US Department of Justice filed the lawsuit on Monday in the District Court for the District of Columbia, naming the Metropolitan Police Department and outgoing police chief Pamela Smith as defendants.

The case sets up a major legal battle over how far governments can go in regulating individual gun ownership.


"The United States of America brings this lawsuit to protect the rights that have been guaranteed for 234 years and which the Supreme Court has explicitly reaffirmed several times over the last two decades,"the Justice Department said in its filing.

This is the second gun-rights lawsuit filed by the administration this month. Earlier, the Justice Department sued the US Virgin Islands, alleging the territory was "obstructing and systematically denying" citizens the right to possess and carry firearms.

The lawsuit also marks another flashpoint in ongoing tensions between the federal government and the District of Columbia. The Trump administration launched a law enforcement intervention in the capital over the summer to curb crime, a move that DC’s attorney general is now challenging in court, including the deployment of the National Guard.

The Justice Department argues that Washington, DC, is enforcing unconstitutional bans on AR-15-style rifles and other semiautomatic weapons that it says are protected under the Supreme Court’s 2008 Heller ruling.

That landmark case, which also arose from a challenge to DC gun laws, held that individuals have a right to own firearms "in common use today," independent of militia service.

"There seems to us no doubt, on the basis of both text and history, that the Second Amendment conferred an individual right to keep and bear arms," the court ruled at the time, while adding that "the right was not unlimited.”

According to the Justice Department, the District has exceeded those limits. The lawsuit claims DC bars residents from registering widely used firearms and then penalises them criminally for possessing unregistered weapons.

"Specifically, the District denies law-abiding citizens the ability to register a wide variety of commonly used semi-automatic firearms, such as the Colt AR-15 series rifles, which is among the most popular of firearms in America," the filing states.

The department further argues that DC's restrictions are arbitrary. "DC's current semi-automatic firearms prohibition that bans many commonly used pistols, rifles or shotguns is based on little more than cosmetics, appearance, or the ability to attach accessories," it says, and fails to consider whether the weapons are "in common use today" for lawful purposes.

Unlike the Heller case, the current lawsuit does not include individual DC residents as plaintiffs. Instead, the administration says it has the authority to challenge the city’s laws under the federal crime law enacted in 1994.

The Metropolitan Police Department declined to comment on the case, saying it does not discuss pending litigation.

(With input from agencies)