This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Thursday, July 19th, 2007.

I'm Caleb Brown.

The District of Columbia's ban on private gun ownership may soon be reviewed by the

US Supreme Court.

DC Mayor Adrian Fenty is appealing a DC circuit court ruling throwing out the city's

almost total ban on private gun ownership.

Cato Institute Senior Fellow Robert Levy was co-counsel on the case,

Parker v District of Columbia.

He explains the case and its implications for the right to bear arms.

Parker is about six Washington, D.C. residents, inner city residents, who would like to be able

to defend themselves in their own homes by possessing functional firearms.

But regrettably,

Washington, D.C. has had in place for 31 years

a ban on such weapons. The DC law says first that you may not have a handgun at all

in your own home even if you're a law-abiding citizen.

And if you happen to have a handgun in 1976 when the law was first passed,

you get to keep it, but it has to be unloaded.

And it has to be disassembled or trigger locked.

Same thing is true of a rifle or shotgun if you have in your home.

And if you happen to have a pistol, you can't carry it from room to room in your own home without a permit and DC has not issued a permit in 31 years.

So effectively no one can own a functional firearm in Washington DC to defend themselves in their own homes.

And why was this thrown out?

...