In its Heller decision, the Supreme Court ordered (pdf, page 64):
Assuming that Heller is not disqualified from the exercise of Second Amendment rights, the District must permit him to register his handgun and must issue him a license to carry it in the home.
Clear? Not to the District of Columbia:
District residents can start registering their guns today. But at least one very high profile application was already rejected.
Dick Heller is the man who brought the lawsuit against the District’s 32-year-old ban on handguns. He was among the first in line Thursday morning to apply for a handgun permit.
But when he tried to register his semi-automatic weapon, he says he was rejected. He says his gun has seven bullet clip. Heller says the City Council legislation allows weapons with fewer than eleven bullets in the clip. A spokesman for the DC Police says the gun was a bottom-loading weapon, and according to their interpretation, all bottom-loading guns are outlawed because they are grouped with machine guns.
The Supreme Court’s order was qualified in only one way, that Heller has not been disqualified from his Second Amendment rights. There was no qualification about Heller’s handgun being a revolver, or any other specific sort. I don’t see how this can stand.
I have to say this is clever on Heller’s part. With a Supreme Court decision to back him up, he’s uniquely positioned to force this issue.
Internet Scofflaw 