Federal prosecutors at Washington, D.C. are under new orders from the district’s U.S. Attorney, Jeanine Pirro, not to press felony charges against citizens for merely appearing on city streets carrying a shotgun or rifle.
The shift from the previous policy comes as hundreds of federal agents have flooded various neighborhoods around the nation’s capital under the Trump administration’s efforts to crack down on crime and increase immigration enforcement.
“Criminal culpability is not determined by the instruments people employ but by the intent and conduct of the actor,” Ms. Pirro said in a statement. “Crimes are intentional acts and will be prosecuted to the fullest extent by my office, regardless of what instruments of criminality are used.”
The new policy, drafted by the Department of Justice and the solicitor general’s office, reverses a long-standing city statute that bans carrying shotguns and rifles, except for narrow exceptions and with an official permit.
The New York Sun reached out to Ms. Pirro’s office for further clarification on the new edict and is awaiting a response.
D.C. prosecutors have used the previous rule in multiple high-profile cases, including the 2019 shotgun attack in Northeast Washington and against the “Pizzagate” gunman who stormed into a restaurant in the Chevy Chase neighborhood with an AR-15 rifle.
The shift in policy comes as the Trump administration touts gun seizures as one of the positive outcomes of the federalization of law enforcement at the nation’s capital.
“Since our mission began, there have been a total of 465 arrests, 68 guns seized, and charges for homicide, narcotics, and firearm offenses,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said on X. “Nearly half of these arrests occurred in the high-crime areas of DC.”
Ms. Pirro, a longtime ally of Mr. Trump, said to the Washington Post that she intends to continue to issue charges for violent crimes involving rifles as well as firearms trafficking, but that the original policy “is clearly a violation of the Supreme Court’s holdings.”
She cited two cases where the rulings expanded the right to carry arms —District of Columbia v. Heller from 2008, in which the court ruled that individuals could have firearms in their house for self-defense and N.Y. State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen from 2022, in which it ruled that any gun-control regulations that are not ingrained in America’s historical tradition should be struck down by lower courts.
“Without question, President Donald Trump and I are committed to prosecuting gun crime. This unprecedented number of gun case prosecutions in both federal and local court is only done consistent with the constitution and the laws of the land,” Ms. Pirro said in a statement to the Post. “Nothing in this memo from the Department of Justice and the Office of Solicitor General precludes the United States Attorney’s Office from charging a felon with the possession of a firearm.”
“What it does preclude is a separate charge of possession of a registered rifle or shotgun,” she said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
