Today's video is about how to lawfully transport a firearm through the District of Columbia. DC has some of the toughest gun laws in the country, and a common scenario we deal with is representing a law abiding citizen who gets arrested in the District of Columbia for often unknowingly carrying or transporting a firearm through the city. My name is Joseph Sano and I'm the founder and managing partner of Sano Law pc, where we fight relentlessly on behalf of anyone in trouble who cares about their future and have defended dozens if not hundreds of people charged with gun offenses. By the end of this video, you're going to understand how serious DC gun laws are and how to lawfully transport a firearm through the District of Columbia.
Explain by example
Now, to explain that, I'm going to go through a common unfortunate scenario that happens because of DC's strict gun laws, and it goes something like this.
An average out of out-of-state law abiding citizen with no prior criminal record or previous arrest travels through the city or to the nation's capitol, we'll call him John. John commits one of the hundreds of possible DC traffic infractions while driving, and now he could get pulled over for something as simple or innocuous as hanging something from the rear view mirror or having window tint, that's too dark. Now, one of the dozens of law enforcement agencies that have jurisdiction in the district will pull him over and we'll call this officer. Officer friendly. Officer friendly, asked John, do you have any weapons in the vehicle? And John, who's accustomed to the laws of his own home state will voluntarily announce to officer Friendly that he does have a firearm in the vehicle. John then tries to show officer friendly his home state concealed carry permit for the guns that he believes he's legally possessing.
Now, in John's mind, all of this is no big deal, but what he doesn't understand is that his life is about to change forever. Officer friendly places John under arrest for carrying a pistol without a license, which in the District of Columbia is a felony punishable up to five years in prison. Now, it's likely when John sees the judge for presentment after arrest, he'll have at least been held overnight in jail and could end up being held for three days. Now, once John's released from court, he'll have a serious criminal matter hanging over his head, and within a few weeks, the United States Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia will indict John through something called the rapid indictment process. Now, the indictment will come down with at least three charges, one carrying a pistol without a license, which is a felony two unlawful un possession of an unregistered firearm, which is a misdemeanor and possession of unregistered ammunition, which is also a misdemeanor.
Charge for the bullets in DC
And yes, in DC they will charge you for the bullets in addition to the gun. Now, to John, this whole situation may seem, and he'll assume that the government is just going to drop the charges. Now, the sad thing is there's almost no scenario where the United States Attorney's Office will just dismiss a felony charge based on these facts. And what makes it even tougher is that there's usually no way to challenge what has happened. There's no illegal search. John has voluntarily admitted that the firearm belonged to him, so you can't attack whether he has possession of the firearm. The best John can hope for is that an experienced DC gun lawyer can negotiate and convince the prosecutor to either offer a misdemeanor plea or in some rare circumstances, convince the government to offer some type of diversion. Diversion is where John would do some community service or jump through some hoops, and ultimately the government would dismiss the case.
DC Superior Court
Now, one positive thing is that most judges in DC Superior Court have a little more common sense than the prosecutors and their supervisors. So if the best John can get is a misdemeanor plea, the sentence that a judge will usually impose is something as little as a small fine or a short period of unsupervised probation, an unsupervised probation. You don't even have a probation officer. You just have to not get rearrested. But the problem is, if you do get convicted for a misdemeanor, you have to wait eight years before you can get the record expunged. Now, to avoid John's fate, if you plan to travel with a lawful firearm, make sure you check the laws of each state that you plan to enter. Gun laws vary from state to state, and in a place like DC or other states with restrictive gun laws, ignorance of the law is not a defense.
Hiring a qualified DC gun lawyer
I cannot overstate to you the importance of hiring a qualified DC gun lawyer who has experiencing handling gun cases in the District of Columbia. Now, if you must travel through the District of Columbia with a firearm, it's possible to do it legally under DC law, but you have to meet several requirements. First, you must be traveling from one place where you may lawfully possess the firearm to another place where you may lawfully possess the firearm. That means, let's say if you're going from Virginia to Delaware through dc, you have to be lawful in Virginia and Delaware to go through dc. Now, the firearm must also be unloaded. Neither the firearm nor the ammunition can be transported in a readily accessible or directly accessible manner from the passenger compartment or driver's side of the vehicle. Now, if you don't have a backseat or a trunk, if you can't separate the firearm from the driver's compartment, you must put the firearm and ammunition in a locked container that's not in the glove compartment or console. And again, in that scenario, the firearm must also be unloaded. Now, if you want additional information about DC gun laws, click the link below to our website where we have lots of information, or feel free to give us a call. We handle gun cases routinely.
YouTube Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tebRozPaFao&t=3s
Credit: Joseph A. Scrofano, Scrofano Law PC
Also, read Can You Carry a Gun on a Boat? By USCCA