On March 27, President Donald J. Trump signed a wide-ranging executive order titled, “Making the District of Columbia Safe and Beautiful.” The order seeks to leverage President Trump’s powers as the executive of the federal government to ensure the federal enclave is “a place in which residents, commuters, and tourists feel safe at all hours” and a “showcase [for] beautiful, clean, and safe public spaces.”
As part of this effort, President Trump made clear that law-abiding Americans should be empowered to exercise their right to bear arms for self-defense in the Nation’s Capital. The executive order established a D.C. Safe and Beautiful Task Force to carry out the president’s directive. The order provides,
(c) The Task Force shall coordinate to ensure effective Federal participation in the following tasks:
…
(v) collaborating with appropriate local government entities to provide assistance to increase the speed and lower the cost of processing concealed carry license requests in the District of Columbia ….
In the 2017 case Wrenn v. District of Columbia, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit determined that the Second Amendment guarantees law-abiding citizens’ right to carry in the District. The court held:
Reading the Amendment, applying Heller I’s reasoning, and crediting key early sources, we conclude: the individual right to carry common firearms beyond the home for self-defense—even in densely populated areas, even for those lacking special self-defense needs—falls within the core of the Second Amendment's protections.
Since then, D.C. has operated under a “shall-issue” regime, whereby a person need not show an extraordinary need to obtain a carry permit. In March 2024, the Washington Post reported that there were 17,647 carry permits in the District, up from 123 prior to Wrenn.
Despite this welcome increase, the federal enclave’s permit requirements and application procedure remain far more onerous than almost all other jurisdictions, and – according to research from economist John R. Lott Jr. – D.C. ranks near the bottom in terms of the percent of the adult population with a carry permit. The Trump administration’s move to expedite D.C.’s permitting process is an excellent step in the right direction.
The move to expedite D.C. carry permits comes at the same time the Trump administration is working to protect the Right-to-Carry throughout the country.
As we report elsewhere this week, the President’s D.C. order coincided with an announcement by the U.S. Department of Justice of an investigation into the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department to determine whether it is engaging in a pattern or practice of depriving ordinary, law-abiding Californians of their Second Amendment rights through its procedures for issuing concealed handgun licenses.
Following the U.S. District Court decision in Wrenn, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the NRA-backed case New York State Rifle & Pistol Assoc. v. Bruen (2022). Bruen struck down New York’s discretionary carry permit regime, making clear that the Second Amendment protects the right to bear arms outside the home for self-defense and making right to carry the law in every jurisdiction.
In its opinion, the Court stated that its ruling did not directly call into question the numerous shall-issue licensing regimes throughout the country. However, Justice Clarence Thomas made clear,
because any permitting scheme can be put toward abusive ends, we do not rule out constitutional challenges to shall-issue regimes where, for example, lengthy wait times in processing license applications or exorbitant fees deny ordinary citizens their right to public carry.
Having a nominal shall-issue carry procedure on the books isn’t enough to satisfy the Second Amendment. Citizens need to be provided with a viable, affordable avenue for exercising their Second Amendment rights.
With these actions to ensure law-abiding Americans have tangible and timely access to right-to-carry permits, the Trump administration has demonstrated an informed understanding of the Second Amendment right to bear arms outside the home and a dedication to protecting it in practice.
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