On Thursday, Josh Horwitz, the executive director of Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence released the following statement regarding the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling on Washington D.C.'s gun ban:

"Today, in the case of District of Columbia v. Heller, the United States Supreme Court departed from over 100 years of earlier judicial decisions and held that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess firearms for self-defense purposes unconnected with service in a militia. Despite the sweeping tone of the holding, the majority opinion by Justice Antonin Scalia is relatively narrow in scope, and leaves more questions open than it answers.

"Struck down in the case were the District of Columbia’s ban on handgun possession in the home and its law requiring that trigger locks be affixed to firearms in the home. The majority opinion refused to announce any test or level of scrutiny for its decision invalidating the laws. The Court determined instead that the District’s handgun ban was an absolute ban on home possession of an entire class of weapons that Americans “overwhelmingly choose for lawful self-defense” (i.e., handguns) and therefore it failed any constitutional test. The Court also struck down D.C.’s trigger lock requirement because the law did not contain an explicit exception for removal of a trigger lock for lawful self-defense use in the home.

"By deliberately omitting what test the Court is using to decide that the challenged laws unreasonably burden this newly proclaimed individual right to possess firearms, the Court leaves legislators and lower courts adrift at a time when public health data clearly shows the harm associated with handguns far outweighs any benefit from their use for lawful self defense. We hope and predict that future decisions attempting to apply Heller will reveal its shortcomings, and that the Court will soon have an opportunity to reconsider whether an Amendment the Court says was intended to protect “the people” should be interpreted in a context that gives weight to public health and safety.

"Because the District of Columbia is not a state, the Court did not address whether its holding is “incorporated” by the 14th Amendment. However, in a footnote, the Court criticized earlier cases limiting the Second Amendment to acts of Congress.

"The majority stressed that the ruling leaves intact certain traditional areas of firearm regulation, such as prohibitions on possession by certain classes of individuals, bans on guns in government buildings and schools, and regulations of firearms sales, but failed to explain why these areas of regulation do not implicate the “individual right” identified by the Court. The decision does not clearly foreclose firearms licensing requirements, provided they are not vulnerable to arbitrary and capricious enforcement.

"Now that the Court has determined the Second Amendment protects an individual right and made it clear that right is not absolute, the single biggest excuse for not passing tough gun laws to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and dangerous individuals is gone. While we are disappointed with the Court’s decision, we hope legislators will now use a broad array of public policy options that are clearly constitutional to address the epidemic of gun violence that continues in our country."