If the press carried lie detectors...

Paul Helmke, President of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, issued the following statement:

?The 2-1 decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in Parker v. District of Columbia striking down the District of Columbia?s handgun law is judicial activism at its worst.  By disregarding nearly seventy years of U.S. Supreme Court precedent, two Federal judges have negated the democratically-expressed will of the people of the District of Columbia and deprived this community of a gun law it enacted thirty years ago and still strongly supports. 

?This ruling represents the first time in American history that a Federal appeals court has struck down a gun law on Second Amendment grounds.  While acknowledging that ?reasonable restrictions? to promote ?the government?s interest in public safety? are permitted by the Second Amendment, the two-judge majority substituted its policy preferences for those of the elected representatives of the District of Columbia. ?

# # #

As the nation's largest national, non-partisan, grassroots organizations leading the fight to prevent gun violence, the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence is dedicated to creating an America free from gun violence, where all Americans are safe at home, at school, at work, and in their communities.