method for determining risk of dangerousness is reasonably related to the government's stated interests. Intermediate scrutiny does not require the individualized assessment of dangerousness that plaintiff requests." III.
Civil Litigation Raising Second Amendment Claims After Heller A.
Significant Pending Lawsuits
State and local governments – including New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, Boston, Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Diego, Denver, and the states of California, Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, New Mexico, Texas, and West Virginia – and the District of Columbia presently face fifty significant lawsuits challenging various firearms laws under the Second Amendment. Nearly half of these suits involve challenges to laws regulating the carrying of weapons in public, while others challenge registration laws, bans on unsafe handguns and assault weapons, and safe storage laws. Additionally, seven significant suits raising Second Amendment claims have been initiated against the federal government. For more information about all of the pending cases, please refer to the Post-Heller Litigation Summary Appendix at http://smartgunlaws.org/post-hellerlitigation-summary/. B.
Civil Suits Have Been Largely Unsuccessful
Generally, Second Amendment challenges by civil plaintiffs have been unsuccessful. In the wake of the Heller decision, for example, the District of Columbia adopted comprehensive firearms laws. In September 2011, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit affirmed in part and remanded in part the federal district court’s decision rejecting a Second Amendment challenge to many of those laws, including D.C.’s firearms registration system, ban on assault weapons and large capacity ammunition magazines, one-handgun-a-month law, and law requiring the reporting of lost or stolen firearms.xv Federal and state courts have also upheld laws requiring the registration of all firearms, xvi requiring an applicant for a license to carry a concealed weapon to show “good cause,” “proper cause,” or “need,” or qualify as a “suitable person,” xvii prohibiting the issuance of a concealed carry permit based on a misdemeanor assault conviction,xviii requiring an applicant for a handgun possession license to be a state residentxix or pay an administrative fee,xx requiring an applicant for a concealed carry license to be at least twenty-one years old,xxi prohibiting the sale of firearms and ammunition to individuals younger than twenty-one years old, xxii or to individuals who does not reside in any U.S. state,xxiii prohibiting domestic violence misdemeanants from possessing firearms,xxiv prohibiting the possession of firearms in places of worship, xxv in common areas of public housing units,xxvi and within college campus facilities and at campus events, xxvii and regulating gun shows held on public property.xxviii Additionally, a federal district court recently refused to enjoin enforcement of San Francisco ordinances requiring the safe storage of handguns in the home and prohibiting the sale of “particularly dangerous ammunition” that has no sporting purpose, having concluded that the plaintiffs 9