Legal expert Douglas Letter is sounding the alarm after the Trump administration’s new push to allow what he called “weapons of war” to be freely carried on the streets of Washington, D.C.
“It’s hard to think of anything that is more dangerous to the American people than assault weapons,” Letter said, speaking with Zeteo in its report this week.
On Monday, the Justice Department sued Washington, D.C.’s police department over its effective ban on AR-15 rifles, claiming the ban to be unconstitutional. Attorney General Pam Bondi called the effective ban an “infringement on the Second Amendment,” and Harmeet Dhillon – assistant attorney general of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division – called it a blatant “violation” of the Constitution.
For Letter, however, allowing what a Ronald Reagan-appointed judge described as “excessively dangerous weapons” to be freely carried in the streets of Washington, D.C. could exacerbate “bloodshed and trauma” in mass shootings. He also slammed the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division for its involvement in the legal challenge.
“What an abuse of the storied history of [the DOJ’s] Civil Rights Division, which was created to protect communities of color from discrimination – not to increase violence and gun industry profits,” Letter told Zeteo.
Letter also said that were restrictions around AR-15 rifles did not exist during the Jan. 6 Capitol breach in 2021, the riot could have been far deadlier.
“Letter, who was working at the US Capitol during the pro-Trump riot on Jan. 6, 2021, said he is terrified to imagine a riot where insurrectionists are openly and legally carrying AR-15s,” wrote Zeteo reporter Minnah Arshad.
The DOJ’s lawsuit, however, will likely fail, Letter predicted, as he pointed to several past rulings in cases challenging state bans on assault weapons.
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