FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (Philadelphia, PA) May 17, 2016: The District Court of Washington, DC filed a response today granting the request by Matthew Grace and the Pink Pistols for a preliminary injunction preventing the City of Washington, DC from enforcing the “good reason” clause in their concealed-carry law. This clause left it to law enforcement and other government officials to decide who had a sufficient reason to exercise an enumerated right under the Second Amendment of the U. S. Constitution.
“This clause was a travesty of justice from its inception,” said Gwendolyn Patton, First Speaker of the Pink Pistols. “It left the free exercise of an inherent human right up to bureaucrats and police officials. If your reason to carry a gun was deemed insufficient — if, by their measure, your reason to carry a gun wasn’t good enough — they could deny you that right with the stroke of a pen and the thump of a rubber stamp. This,” continued Patton, “was unacceptable to us.”
The “good reason” clause is a common tool under so-called “may issue” concealed carry laws, allowing the local government to deny a concealed-carry permit except under what they consider to be “circumstances of special need.” Typically, this consisted of persons who were required by their job to carry large sums of cash or objects of extreme value, or to transport same through dangerous neighborhoods. It was also typically used to prevent persons from acquiring a permit to exercise their natural right of self-defense. The Pink Pistols maintain that, since “perceived sexual orientation” is the second most common source of animus in bias-motivated crimes (FBI Crime Statistics, https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2015/november/latest-hate-crime-statistics-available). This common animus, they further maintain, constitutes a clear and present danger to the sexual-minority community that predicates just cause to carry a firearm for self-defense. Further, they maintain that nowhere in the Second Amendment is the concept of “good reason” enumerated, and a requirement to show such special need is fundamentally unconstitutional. Today, the District Court agreed.
“We clearly showed that our concerns have sufficient merit to justify this preliminary injunction,” Patton continued. “We thank the Court for its probity in this matter, and shall continue to move forward to safeguard the natural rights of our members and the public to exercise their rights.”
The Pink Pistols is an international organization dedicated to the legal, safe, and responsible use of firearms for self-defense of the sexual-minority community. Chapters may be found across the United States and Canada. Though the Pink Pistols is for the GLBTQ community, it is not solely composed of the GLBTQ community, and all are welcome to join.
Contact:
Gwendolyn S. Patton
First Speaker, Pink Pistols International
firstspeaker@pinkpistols.org
http://www.pinkpistols.org
Ph: (610) 879-2364