Safety in Defenselessness

The only evidence the district cited for this claim was one council member's remark about how long it takes to unlock and load a gun. The district nevertheless suggested that "local courts are likely to give the law a narrowing construction for emergencies."

That possibility does not save the statute, the D.C. Circuit ruled, since "judicial lenity cannot make up for the unreasonable restriction of a constitutional right." Furthermore, a "narrowing construction" is by no means a foregone conclusion.

In its Supreme Court brief, the district asserts that an exception for self-defense at home "is fairly implied in the trigger lock requirement," but it does not explain how. Courts reasonably could read the law's specific "safe storage" exceptions to mean there are no other exceptions.

As Bellingham, Wash., attorney Jeffrey Teichert notes in a friend-of-the-court brief, D.C. courts have convicted residents of violating other gun regulations even when they used their weapons for self-defense. In one such case, the district argued that "self-defense would only excuse the use of the weapon, not the possession of the weapon."

This sort of uncertainty would be considered intolerable in the exercise of any other fundamental right. Could a law requiring that books in the home be kept under lock and key be redeemed by arguing that courts probably would give it a "narrowing construction"? If the right to keep and bear arms means anything in practical terms, it means that someone who uses a gun to defend himself in his own home should not have to throw himself on the mercy of the courts.