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The DOJ Assails D.C.'s 'Assault Weapon' Ban As an Arbitrary, Historically Ungrounded Gun Law
Jacob Sullum | 12.24.2025 5:15 PM
In Washington, D.C., a gun cannot be legally owned unless it is registered, and it cannot be registered if it qualifies as an "assault weapon" under D.C. law. That policy, the U.S. Justice Department argues in a lawsuit it filed this week in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, violates the Second Amendment by arbitrarily banning guns that are commonly used for lawful purposes.
The lawsuit, which seems to be the first case pursued by a new Second Amendment Section within the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, "underscores our ironclad commitment to protecting the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding Americans," Attorney General Pam Bondi said on Monday. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, who runs the Civil Rights Division, said she is determined to "defend American citizens from unconstitutional restrictions [on] commonly used firearms."
The statutory basis for the lawsuit, which names the District of Columbia, the Metropolitan Police Department, and D.C. Police Chief Pamela Smith as defendants, is 34 USC 12601, which prohibits any law enforcement "pattern or practice" that "deprives persons of rights, privileges, or immunities secured or protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States." That statute authorizes the attorney general to address such abuses by filing civil actions seeking "appropriate equitable and declaratory relief."
In this case, Dhillon alleges a pattern or practice that deprives D.C. residents of the constitutional right to keep and bear arms. That right, the Supreme Court said in the landmark Second Amendment case District of Columbia v. Heller, encompasses ownership of firearms "in common use" for "lawful purposes like self-defense." Since handguns are "the quintessential self-defense weapon," the Court said, they clearly fall into that category, which made D.C.'s ban on them unconstitutional.
The Court's 2022 decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen,........
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