Until 2014, the District of Columbia prohibited carrying concealed handguns in public. District of Columbia Code Ann. § 22-4506, which had detailed the requirements for a permit to carry a handgun, was repealed in 2009. Thus, the Chief of Police had no authority to issue a permit to carry. In 2014, a federal court struck down the District’s policy of refusing to issue permits to carry in Palmer v. District of Columbia, 59 F. Supp. 3d 173 (D.D.C. 2014).
Until 2017, one of the requirements to receive a concealed carry permit in the District was that applicants needed to show a “good reason” to fear injury to his or her person or property. In 2017, that requirement was struck down by a federal appeals court in Wrenn v. District of Columbia, 864 F.3d 650 (D.C. Cir. 2017). The District did not appeal the Wrenn decision,3 and instead dropped enforcement of the “good reason” requirement.4