Two tales of gun control

OPINION:

The District is loosening its draconian gun laws while Virginia moves to cancel the Second Amendment. Of course, a sudden wave of enlightenment hasn’t descended on the federal city. It had no choice.

Washington’s highest court, the D.C. Court of Appeals, earlier this month conceded that the municipal ban on firearm magazines holding more than 10 rounds of ammunition violates what the Founders saw as the most important right after free speech and religious liberty.

Wisely, the judicial majority recognized that undersized magazines are the exception. Millions of Americans own detachable ammo feeding devices designed to carry at least 15, 20 or 30 cartridges at a time. They also observed the United States has no history of proscribing such items, and their use falls squarely under the Second Amendment.

This wasn’t a partisan analysis. No other outcome is possible under the Supreme Court’s recent Heller and Bruen decisions. Those cases acknowledge the “right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed” means a government body can’t stop people from keeping arms at home, nor can it prevent people from bearing them outside their home.

If only the City Council could read. Far-left city leaders imposed an obnoxious registration scheme meant to make the process of legally owning a self-defense weapon so complex and time-consuming that only a handful would stick through to the end. Everyone else gives up without trying.

Sadly, the appellate court declined to expand its holding to strike down the rest of the unconstitutional package of regulations the District uses to discourage exercise of an inherent right. The judges should have gone further, because the only “tradition” of gun control is found in the Black Codes that Democrats cooked up in the 19th century to stop newly freed slaves from protecting themselves with a revolver or rifle.

Delaware, for instance, had a contemptible statute that forced free Black men to obtain the “written certificate of five or more respectable and judicious citizens of the neighborhood” before they would be able to apply for a permit. After that, a justice of the peace determined whether the “circumstances of his case justify his keep and using a gun.”

That’s the direction the Democrats on the other side of the Potomac River are headed with Gov. Abigail Spanberger about to enact sweeping gun control measures. Virginia’s General Assembly just passed legislation criminalizing the buying, selling or importation of magazines with more than 15-rounds.

That’s not far from what the District attempted to do. The only difference is that the upcoming act selected 15 rounds instead of 10 as the limit. Both numbers are equally arbitrary. The bill also halts sales of “assault firearms,” which are arms with features such as a pistol grip or collapsible stock — cosmetic fluff that has no impact on ballistic performance.

By taking these steps, leftists intend to make outlaws of ordinary Americans while they are simultaneously setting the real criminals loose on society. Consider a second proposed decree sitting on Mrs. Spanberger’s desk. House Bill 357 deletes the requirement that judges set cash bail for convicted felons who go out and commit additional, serious offenses. She has until April 12 to sign it.

While it’s refreshing to see the courts step in to curb progressive excess in the District, the legal reckoning may come too late for residents of the Old Dominion.