Justice Department Takes D.C. to Court Over Ban on Common Semi-Automatic Firearms
The Department of Justice has launched a significant legal challenge against the District of Columbia, accusing city officials of enforcing firearms regulations that directly contradict the Second Amendment and long-standing Supreme Court precedent.
Filed Monday by the DOJ’s recently formed Second Amendment Section, the lawsuit targets the District’s firearm registration regime, which requires all guns to be registered while simultaneously barring the registration of AR-15 rifles and other widely owned semi-automatic firearms. In practice, the policy amounts to a blanket prohibition on these weapons within Washington, D.C.
According to the Justice Department, the Metropolitan Police Department’s refusal to register constitutionally protected firearms places law-abiding citizens in an impossible position.
“MPD’s current pattern and practice of refusing to register protected firearms is forcing residents to sue to protect their rights and to risk facing wrongful arrest for lawfully possessing protected firearms,” the Justice Department said in a statement announcing the action.
Attorney General Pamela Bondi sharply criticized the District’s policies, calling them a direct assault on Americans’ constitutional freedoms.
“Washington, D.C.’s ban on some of America’s most popular firearms is an unconstitutional infringement on the Second Amendment,” Bondi said. “Living in our nation’s capital should not preclude law-abiding citizens from exercising their fundamental constitutional right to keep and bear arms.”
The lawsuit marks the first major enforcement effort by the DOJ’s Second Amendment Section, created earlier this year following a directive from President Donald Trump, who is currently serving his second term as President of the United States. The section was established to ensure that state and local governments comply with federal constitutional standards on gun rights.
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon, who leads the Civil Rights Division, said the case reflects a renewed federal resolve to protect individual liberties.
“This Civil Rights Division will defend American citizens from unconstitutional restrictions of commonly used firearms,” Dhillon said. “The newly established Second Amendment Section filed this lawsuit to ensure that the very rights D.C. resident Mr. Heller secured 17 years ago are enforced today — and that all law-abiding citizens seeking to own protected firearms for lawful purposes may do so.”
The DOJ’s complaint repeatedly cites the Supreme Court’s landmark 2008 decision in District of Columbia v. Heller, which invalidated the city’s handgun ban and confirmed that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess firearms for self-defense in the home.
That case originated in 2003, when D.C. special police officer Richard Heller challenged the city after being denied permission to keep a handgun in his residence. The Court’s narrow 5–4 ruling remains one of the most consequential gun-rights decisions in American history.
Yet, according to the Justice Department, the District has effectively ignored the ruling.
“Unfortunately, today, the District still prevents ownership of these very same weapons through a pattern and practice of broadly blocking gun registration,” the DOJ said. “Law-abiding citizens throughout our nation’s capital are facing wrongful arrests due to the enforcement of unconstitutional laws.”
While D.C. officials have declined to comment on the lawsuit, the city’s restrictive gun policies have long been a point of contention, particularly between local Democratic leadership and Republican administrations in Washington. Although residents are required to register firearms with the Metropolitan Police Department, city law bars registration of semi-automatic rifles and numerous handguns that clearly fall under the Supreme Court’s “common use” standard established in Heller.
Gun rights advocates have argued for years that this registration framework was designed to sidestep the Court’s ruling. The DOJ’s lawsuit now formally endorses that position, accusing the District of continuing to “openly defy the Supreme Court’s precedent.”
The case also signals an escalation in the Trump administration’s broader effort to reassert federal authority in protecting constitutional rights. Since returning to office, President Trump has issued executive orders instructing federal agencies to confront what he has described as “lawless blue-state restrictions” on core freedoms, including the right to keep and bear arms, free speech protections, and religious liberty.
Bondi said the case carries national implications.
“Every American has the right to self-defense,” she said. “The Constitution doesn’t end where city limits begin.”
The Metropolitan Police Department has faced growing criticism in recent years over its enforcement of D.C.’s gun laws, with multiple lawsuits alleging unlawful arrests of individuals who legally purchased firearms in other states.
As part of its enforcement effort, the DOJ is now encouraging D.C. residents who believe they were wrongly denied firearm registration or subjected to unconstitutional enforcement to submit complaints through the Second Amendment Section’s online portal.