The District of Columbia Court of Appeals has declared D.C.’s ammunition possession ban unconstitutional in the case of Herrington v. District of Columbia.
The statute reads as follows:
The Court based its ruling on the 2008 Supreme Court decision in District of Columbia v. Heller, which held that “The Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess a firearm unconnected with service in a militia, and to use that arm for traditionally lawful purposes, such as self-defense within the home.” See a prior post that discusses this case.
The Court of Appeals acknowledged that the Second Amendment right is “not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose…but it does encompass a right to keep ordinary handguns in the home for use in self-defense.” The court therefore reasoned that although neither Heller nor the subsequent Supreme Court case McDonald v. Chicago specifically addressed ammunition, “it logically follows that the right to keep and bear arms extends to the possession of handgun ammunition in the home; for if such possession could be banned (and not simply regulated), that would make it “impossible for citizens to use [their handguns] for the core lawful purpose of self-defense.”
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