The U.S. Department of Justice’s new Second Amendment Section within the Civil Rights Division is already paying dividends.

On December 22, the DOJ filed a lawsuit against the District of Columbia’s Metropolitan Police Department (MPD), alleging that the District government and MPD unconstitutionally ban the AR-15 and many other firearms protected under the Second Amendment.

According to a news release issued by the DOJ, the District’s gun laws require anyone seeking to own a gun to register it with the D.C. Metro Police. However, the D.C. Code imposes a broad registration ban on numerous firearms—an unconstitutional incursion into the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens seeking to own protected firearms for lawful purposes.

“Today’s action from the Department of Justice’s new Second Amendment Section underscores our ironclad commitment to protecting the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding Americans,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi. “Washington, DC’s ban on some of America’s most popular firearms is an unconstitutional infringement on the Second Amendment—living in our nation’s capital should not preclude law-abiding citizens from exercising their fundamental constitutional right to keep and bear arms.”

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon, who heads up the Civil Rights Division’s Second Amendment Section and has promised that “protecting the American people’s Second Amendment rights is a TOP priority,” also weighed in on the lawsuit.

“This Civil Rights Division will defend American citizens from unconstitutional restrictions of commonly used firearms, in violation of their Second Amendment rights,” Dillon said. “The newly established Second Amendment Section filed this lawsuit to ensure that the very rights D.C. resident Mr. Heller secured 17 years ago are enforced today—and that all law-abiding citizens seeking to own protected firearms for lawful purposes may do so.”

Dillon was referencing D.C. resident Dick Heller, plaintiff in the U.S. Supreme Court’s critical Heller ruling, which held that the Second Amendment does, in fact, protect the rights of law-abiding citizens to own a semi-automatic weapon in their homes for lawful purposes, such as self-defense. Unfortunately, today, the District still prevents ownership of these very same weapons through a pattern and practice of broadly blocking gun registration. 

Gun-rights organizations, including the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA) were understandably excited about the DOJ court action.

“We are proud to see the Trump administration stand up for the constitutional and civil rights of Americans who want to exercise their Second Amendment rights,” CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb said in a news release. “This lawsuit shows the night and day difference between this administration and the previous one that attacked the right to keep and Bear arms at every turn.”

The action isn’t the first time the DOJ has come down solidly on the side of the Second Amendment where so-called “assault weapons” are concerned. In recent months, the agency has filed briefs supporting challenges to such bans in both Illinois and New Jersey.