| WASHINGTON, D.C. ... Rep. Ralph Hall (R-TX/4) today praised the U.S. Supreme Court for overturning the Washington, D.C., ban on handguns. The justices voted 5-4 against the ban. At issue was whether the city’s ban violated the Second Amendment right to “keep and bear arms” by preventing individuals from having guns in their homes.
Hall was one of 250 U.S. Representatives and 55 Senators who filed an amicus curiae brief to the Supreme Court in support of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals’ ruling that gun control laws in D.C. violate individuals’ Second Amendment rights. Hall is a longtime supporter of Second Amendment rights and has a long record of votes and bill cosponsorships affirming those rights. In this Congress he is a cosponsor of H.R. 1399, the D.C. Personal Protection Act, that would permit citizens in D.C. to possess handguns and rifles in their homes and businesses.
“The District of Columbia never should have been allowed to suppress the rights of individual citizens,” Hall said. “The 32-year-old ban has done little to reduce the number of murders in D.C., while law-abiding citizens have been deprived of their rights to defend themselves from intruders.”
“I am pleased that the Court overturned this inequitable law, and I believe that many D.C. residents will sleep better at night knowing that they can now possess firearms for their personal protection,” Hall stated.
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