http://www.wsj.com/articles/federal...-two-cases-challenging-d-c-gun-law-1474104606
Federal Appeals Court to Hear Two Cases Challenging D.C. Gun Law
Living in a high-crime neighborhood isn’t reason enough to carry a concealed gun, Washington police say
By Joe Palazzolo Updated Sept. 17, 2016 3:37 p.m. ET
The federal appeals court in the nation’s capital, regarded by many as second only to the U.S. Supreme Court in stature, is slated to examine the Second Amendment’s reach outside the home.
The laws were patterned after the Statute of Northampton, an English law enacted in 1328 that said “no man” could “go nor ride armed by night nor by day, in Fairs, Markets, nor in the presence of the Justices or other Ministers, nor in no part elsewhere.” In the 1800s, many states and territories adopted precursors to “good reason” laws, limiting public carrying to those with “reasonable cause to fear an assault.” “For almost two centuries, the public has recognized the need for—and accepted as constitutional—laws restricting carrying in the public concourse without a particularized self-defense reason,” Holly Johnson, an assistant attorney general, wrote in a July legal brief.
The gun-rights groups have accused the D.C. government of revisionist history. The ancient English statute permitted law-abiding citizens to carry common arms, barring only “dangerous and unusual” weapons wielded to terrify the public, according to Mr. Cooper’s August brief. The American laws influenced by the Statute of Northampton enumerated the same limits, he said.
