A federal appeals court on Friday temporarily stayed last week’s ruling by a lower court that the District government argued would threaten public safety by preventing police from enforcing a provision of the city’s new gun law that requires individuals show “good cause” to obtain a permit to carry a firearm in public.

A U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit panel voted 2 to 1 to grant an administrative stay while it considers whether to halt, pending appeal, a May 17 order by U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon. In granting an injunction sought by the gun rights group Pink Pistols and District resident Matthew Grace, Leon ruled that the “may issue” gun regulation is probably unconstitutional because it infringes on the Second Amendment’s grant of a “core right of self-defense.”

Attorneys for the D.C. government sought a stay to “preserve the status quo” while the courts grapple with a precedent-setting question of whether the right to bear arms extends outside the home — not just inside the home, as the U.S. Supreme Court decided in a 2008 case that struck down the District’s long-standing handgun ban.

The District also argued that a stay of Leon’s ruling would “preserve the integrity of the district court” and “respect” a March decision by another district court judge, Colleen Kollar-Kotelly. Kollar-Kotelly denied an identical request for an injunction against police enforcement of the “good reason” requirement in a similar case already on expedited appeal.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/appeals-court-halts-us-judges-order-banning-aspect-of-dc-gun-enforcement/2016/05/27/531f6928-1eb4-11e6-8c7b-6931e66333e7_story.html