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Attorney General Pam Bondi is leading the Justice Department in suing Washington, D.C.’s police over its allegedly unconstitutional ban on semi-automatic weapons.
Bondi announced the lawsuit on Monday, saying the Metropolitan Police Department currently wrongfully bans the AR-15 and “many other firearms protected under the Second Amendment.”
“The District’s gun laws require anyone seeking to own a gun to register it with D.C. Metro Police,” the DOJ said in a statement. “However, the D.C. Code provides a broad registration ban on numerous firearms — an unconstitutional incursion into the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens seeking to own protected firearms for lawful purposes. 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.
“Today’s action from the Department of Justice’s new Second Amendment Section underscores our ironclad commitment to protecting the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding Americans,” Bondi said in another statement.
SUPREME COURT CASE COULD RESTORE GUN RIGHTS FOR MILLIONS IN BLUE STATES: AG BONDI
“Washington, D.C.’s ban on some of America’s most popular firearms is an unconstitutional infringement on the Second Amendment — living in our nation’s capital should not preclude law-abiding citizens from exercising their fundamental constitutional right to keep and bear arms,” she added.
The new lawsuit comes weeks after Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division, announced DOJ would be taking “a lot more action” related to gun rights via a new department.
“Some of the things we’re seeing, and that is going to be the focus of our work around the country, includes multi-thousand-dollar costs for citizens to apply for concealed carry permits,” she said.
“Other jurisdictions are having unreasonably long delays. Other jurisdictions are outlawing guns that should be protected by the Second Amendment under the recent Supreme Court precedent.”
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She also emphasized that gun rights “equalizes the ability of those of us, women, people with disabilities, and others who might otherwise be more vulnerable, to be able to protect ourselves.”
Fox News’ Andrea Margolis contributed to this report.
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