Dick Heller begins handgun registration process in D.C.

Dick Heller, the Washington, D.C. resident who successfully challenged that city's handgun ban, showed up at police headquarters on Thursday to register (one of) his handguns. Mr. Heller, who reportedly keeps his guns stored with a friend who lives outside the district, apparently did not take the gun he wanted to register with him to the registration office, out of concern for the legality of bringing an unregistered gun with him into the district. Police officials turned him away, saying he needed to bring the handgun with him to undergo a ballistics test as part of the registration procedure.

(Photo: Reason Mag)

The Washington Post reports on Mr. Heller's Thursday visit:

Arriving at 6:30 a.m., accompanied by an adviser, Heller was met outside the building by various police officials. In an animated discussion, they explained to Heller that he needed to show authorities the handgun he wanted to register, and allow it to be test-fired, as part of the registration process.

The adviser, Dane von Breichenruchardt, president of the Bill of Rights Foundation, a public-interest group, said that Heller owns at least two handguns -- a .45-caliber semiautomatic pistol and a .22-caliber revolver -- and that the weapons have been stored for years with a friend in Maryland.

Although officials said that gun owners in Heller's situation can bring legally owned revolvers from other jurisdictions into the District to register them, von Breichenruchardt said he had told Heller not to do so without written assurance that it was permissible.

After Assistant Police Chief Peter J. Newsham publicly promised Heller that he would "absolutely not" get in trouble for bringing a revolver into the city, Heller said he would bring the weapon to police headquarters this morning to start the registration process.
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The new law includes strict storage requirements that opponents of the handgun ban say violate the Supreme Court ruling. Gun owners must keep their pistols at home, unloaded and either disassembled or equipped with trigger locks. Weapons can be loaded and used only if the owner reasonably believes that he or she is in imminent danger from an attacker in the home.

The city also has continued to ban most clip-loaded semiautomatic handguns -- which dominate the firearms market -- by including those weapons in its broadly written ban on machine guns, which was not at issue in the Supreme Court ruling.

Newsham said if anyone shows up to register a semiautomatic pistol that fits the city's definition of a machine gun, police will confiscate the gun but will not immediately arrest the owner. But he said police reserve the right to investigate and eventually file charges.

For Heller, Newsham said, that means his Colt .45 cannot be registered. "It appears that the city does not yet understand the decision and order of the Supreme Court," said Heller, 66, a security guard.

In accordance with police officials' instructions, on Friday morning Mr. Heller returned with a .22 revolver to begin the registration process:

Fulfilling what he said was a decades-long goal, a Capitol Hill man who fought in court to end the District's handgun ban showed up at D.C. police headquarters this morning with an unloaded revolver and began the process of registering it to keep it in his home for self-defense.

Dick A. Heller's long-barreled, .22-caliber revolver was the first legal firearm brought in since the city began accepting registration applications yesterday. Heller also went to police headquarters yesterday, but was turned away because he had left the weapon in Maryland, where he has stored it for years. The only other applicant yesterday was a woman who had been illegally keeping a revolver in her D.C. home during the ban, and brought it in to register it under the city's new six-month amnesty program.
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Heller entered police headquarters, at 300 Indiana Ave. NW, carrying his weapon in a bright red satchel. At a reception counter that had been set up in the lobby for handgun-registration applicants, Heller removed the revolver from the bag and handed it to a police officer. The gun is a 9-shot, blue-steel Harrington & Richardson "Longhorn" model, in the style of sidearms traditionally carried in the Old West.

In addition to being fingerprinted, Heller was slated to take a written test on gun safety and complete other paper work, after which the gun would be returned to him, unloaded.

"I still have to go through this long process," Heller said to a crowd of reporters following him. "It just doesn't make sense to me. But we are starting the process."

In addition to the ballistics analysis, officials will conduct background checks on Heller and other applicants, looking for a history of criminal violations or mental illness, either of which could result in an application being denied.

While his application is processed, Heller can keep his revolver at home. But the weapon must be unloaded and either disassembled or fitted with a trigger lock, according to city law. He cannot legally use it, even in self-defense, until his registration is approved.

Heller owns at least one other gun, a .45-caliber semi-automatic pistol that he also stores in Maryland. That weapon likely would be deemed illegal in the District under the city's strict ban on automatic weapons, which remains in effect. Heller did not try to register the .45, for fear it would be confiscated and he would be charged with a gun violation.

He and his adviser on gun rights have said they expect the automatic weapons ban to be challenged in court.

Obviously, lots more legal challenges to D.C.'s laws will need to succeed before that wretched city begins to comply with the Second Amendment's guarantee. But, at least symbolically, this is a small (ok, really small) victory for Mr. Heller and other freedom-loving Americans.