Current law allegedly leaves riders defenseless in a transit system that is ‘soft target’ for terrorists
Gun owners in the nation’s capital are suing in hopes of being allowed to carry firearms on the region’s crime-ridden public transit system.
The lawsuit is one of several filed nationwide after the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling June 23 recognizing a constitutional right to carry firearms in public for self-defense.
The author of the 6-3 opinion, Justice Clarence Thomas, wrote in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen, that to ban concealed weapons in a specific place, “the government must demonstrate that the regulation is consistent with this Nation’s tradition of firearm regulation.”
The high court has been strengthening Second Amendment protections in recent years. In District of Columbia v. Heller (2008), it held that the amendment protects “the individual right to possess and carry weapons in case of confrontation,” and in McDonald v. City of Chicago (2010), that this right “is fully applicable to the States.”
On June 30, the high court followed up on the Bruen decision by reversing federal appeals court decisions that upheld gun restrictions in California, New Jersey, Maryland, and Hawaii, sending the cases back to the lower courts for a second look, as The Epoch Times reported. Courts will find it difficult to uphold the firearms laws in question.
Sensitive Areas
The plaintiffs in the new lawsuit—D.C. residents Gregory T. Angelo, Tyler Yzaguirre, and Robert M. Miller, along with Fairfax, Va. resident Cameron M. Erickson—which was filed in federal court June 30, are suing the District of Columbia and Metropolitan Police Department Chief Robert J. Contee III. Yzaguirre is president of the nonprofit Second Amendment Institute.
The four men, all holders of concealed pistol carry licenses issued by Contee’s office, are regular riders of the Washington Metropolitan Transit Authority, which runs bus and subway lines in the greater Washington area, including in northern Virginia and Montgomery and Prince George’s Counties in Maryland.
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