The man who fought D.C.’s gun laws

A Oxford-trained, libertarian political ethicist who has lived in the city for more than two decades, Palmer tells The Washington Post's Spencer Hsu that he's a "firearms-owning peacenik" who just wants to allow vulnerable people to defend themselves. John Hames shared with you:   The man who fought D.C.'s gun laws Washington Post - Tom Palmer, general director of Atlas Global Initiative for Free Trade, Peace and Prosperity, was one of the plantiffs in the Supreme Court case that overturned the District's handgun ban. Now he's sued again, this time for the right to carry his gun outside his home. (2009 File Photo/Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post) To legal scholars, the case that promises to end the District's ban on carrying handguns in public is known as Palmer v. District of Columbia. Tom G. Palmer himself is hardly an abstraction, however. A Oxford-trained, libertarian political ethicist who has lived in the city for more than two decades, Palmer tells The Washington Post's Spencer Hsu that he's a "firearms-owning peacenik" who just wants to allow vulnerable people to defend themselves. In response to Palmer's victory in federal district court, the city is now pondering whether to appeal and/or how to rewrite its gun laws to comply with the ruling. Said Palmer: "It's not like they have to sit down in a philosopher's chair and dream something up. … If they decide to make it so onerous that they seem to comply in form, but in fact make it impossible to exercise, they will see us in court again." Available on the App Store.

John Hames