Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, has determined the District’s blanket ban on the possession of so-called large-capacity gun magazines cannot be reconciled with the Second Amendment. This D.C. statute arbitrarily limits the capacity of a firearm magazine to 10 rounds or fewer, which is well below the factory-specified capacity for many common handguns.
Her office filed a motion to vacate an appellant’s conviction for possession of a large-capacity feeding device. According to the filing, it is “the United States’s view that a complete ban on large capacity ammunition feeding devices … cannot survive constitutional scrutiny.” The filing further acknowledged the U.S. Department of Justice’s past defense of the statute but noted it “has changed its position as to the validity of the statute under the Second Amendment.”
Pirro announced also announced that—after consultation with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Solicitor General’s Office—federal prosecutors had been instructed not to seek felony charges for those carrying registered shotguns or rifles. Pirro made clear that D.C.’s blanket prohibition on this activity is in violation of U.S. Supreme Court rulings in District of Columbia v. Heller and N.Y. State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen.
Considering the Trump administration’s ongoing efforts to lower crime in Washington, D.C., Pirro also made clear her office’s commitment to pursuing charges against those who had not obtained their firearms legally by saying, “We will continue to seize all illegal and unlicensed firearms, and to vigorously prosecute all crimes connected with them … . And we will continue to charge a felon in possession of any of these firearms. Our resolve to prosecute crime is not lessened by defective D.C. code statutes, as the DOJ works to change those statutes.”
The motion on the arbitrary limits on gun magazines notably cited Magnus v. United States: “A conviction for conduct that is not criminal, but is instead constitutionally protected, is the ultimate miscarriage of justice.”
Pirro is clearly making the distinction that law-enforcement officials should go after actual criminals, not law-abiding Americans who cherish their freedom.
“This is a significant development as other cases concerning ‘large-capacity magazines’ make their way through federal courts and is consistent with other similarly helpful moves by the Department of Justice,” reported NRA-ILA. “Last month, the Department of Justice filed an amicus brief supporting an NRA-backed challenge to New Jersey’s ban on ‘assault weapons’ and ‘large-capacity magazines.’ As the NRA continues these many fights to protect and advance the Second Amendment in courtrooms nationwide, it is increasingly finding an ally in the Trump administration’s DOJ.”
