Thoughtful analysts suggested that a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on the Second Amendment last month was not the "last word" on Americans' right to keep and bear arms. This week, Washington, D.C. officials proved them correct.
High Court justices, ruling in a case from Washington, D.C., decided that Americans have reasonably broad rights under the Second Amendment. Specifically, they said that Washington's ban on ownership of handguns was unconstitutional.
That was good news. It appeared to be an effective curb on local and state government efforts to virtually eliminate private ownership of firearms.
But this week, the District of Columbia Council voted to replace the rejected law with a new measure that also is objectionable on constitutional grounds. Council members voted to replace the ban on handguns with a requirement that anyone with one must either store it under lock and key or keep it disassembled and not functional.
Part of the Supreme Court ruling stipulated that Washington could not prohibit residents from keeping guns that are "fully operable for the purpose of immediate self-defense." Handgun owners are not permitted to carry their weapons around inside their own homes under the new rule.
In addition, the firearms they are permitted to own, even with those restrictions, are limited unreasonably. Semi-automatic and automatic handguns - weapons that fire once each time the trigger is pulled - still are banned. Washington officials say those weapons fall into their definition of "machine guns." That is ridiculous, of course. Machine guns are weapons that, once the trigger is pulled, continue firing until it is released.
The D.C. Council, then, is thumbing its nose at the Supreme Court.
Rest assured that other anti-gun local government officials throughout the United States are watching. If the D.C. Council gets away with its scofflaw action, other municipalities, counties and perhaps even states will follow suit.
Supreme Court justices ought to be furious, of course. But they are experienced enough to know that the D.C. Council's attempt to continue ignoring Second Amendment rights will not be the first test of their ruling. Others will follow. It will be up to the courts, right up to the Supreme Court, to continue defending one of Americans' most cherished, most important rights - that of keeping and bearing arms.