The Donald Trump-led US administration has filed a lawsuit against the Washington, DC government, arguing that its restrictions on certain semiautomatic firearms violate the Second Amendment. The United States Department of Justice filed the suit on Monday in the District Court for the District of Columbia, naming the Metropolitan Police Department and outgoing police chief Pamela Smith as defendants.
The case is expected to trigger a significant legal battle over the extent to which governments can regulate individual gun ownership. In its filing, the Justice Department said the lawsuit seeks to protect rights guaranteed for more than two centuries and repeatedly reaffirmed by the Supreme Court of the United States.
This marks the second gun-rights lawsuit brought by the administration this month. Earlier, the Justice Department sued the United States Virgin Islands, alleging that the territory was obstructing and systematically denying citizens the right to possess and carry firearms.
The lawsuit also highlights ongoing tensions between the federal government and Washington, DC. The Trump administration had launched a law enforcement intervention in the capital over the summer to curb crime, including deployment of the National Guard—a move now being challenged in court by the city’s attorney general.
According to the Justice Department, DC is enforcing unconstitutional bans on AR-15-style rifles and other semiautomatic weapons that it says are protected under the Supreme Court’s 2008 ruling in District of Columbia v. Heller. That landmark judgment, which also stemmed from a challenge to DC gun laws, held that individuals have the right to own firearms “in common use today,” independent of militia service, while noting that the right is not unlimited.
The department argues that the District has exceeded those limits by barring residents from registering widely used firearms and criminally penalising possession of unregistered weapons. It specifically cites restrictions on commonly used semiautomatic firearms, including the Colt AR-15 series, which it describes as among the most popular firearms in the US.
The filing further contends that DC’s rules are arbitrary, saying the ban is based largely on cosmetic features, appearance, or the ability to attach accessories, rather than whether the firearms are commonly used for lawful purposes.
Unlike the Heller case, the current lawsuit does not include individual DC residents as plaintiffs. Instead, the administration says it has the authority to challenge the city’s gun laws under a federal crime statute enacted in 1994.
The Metropolitan Police Department declined to comment, citing its policy of not discussing pending litigation.
