Legal Battle, Gun Battles Not Over in D.C.
Analysis: Justices nixed gun ban, but violence, legal wrangling will continue.
June 26, 2008— -- Law enforcement sources told ABC News that the Supreme Court ruling to overturn Washington, D.C.'s strict handgun ban will likely lead to another legal battle between the National Rifle Association and the District of Columbia in short order.
City officials announced after the decision that anyone who wishes to own a handgun and keep it in their home will have to register and be fingerprinted. Each of those regulations will almost certainly be a nonstarter with the National Rifle Association.
The organization has long been against any form of registration, limiting, for example, the amount of time the federal government can keep the records of people who have undergone background checks to purchase handguns.
NRA executive vice president Wayne LaPierre praised the court's ruling in a statement, calling it "a great moment in American history" and saying it "vindicates individual Americans all over this country who have always known that this is their freedom worth protecting."
"The Second Amendment as an individual right now becomes a real permanent part of American constitutional law," LaPierre said.
But a debate about what constitutes reasonable restrictions on gun purchases is set to be interesting.
Ronald Ruecker, the president of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, said in a statement that the court's decision supports the law enforcement goal of "reducing the unacceptable level of gun violence in this nation" and noted that the ruling "upholds and maintains the ability of federal, state and local governments to establish reasonable restrictions on the sale and possession of firearms."
He cites the prohibition of gun sales to the mentally ill or convicted felons, as well as restrictions on carrying them in schools as examples of "sensible, common sense measures designed to protect the safety of the public."
As for the violence in the nation's capital, expect more of the same -- or worse, as one law enforcement official told ABC News.
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