Gun Ban Ruling Puts Fenty on the Spot

And the Supreme Court has grown more conservative and, it appears, friendlier to the gun lobby's view of constitutional rights with the addition of Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., who as a member of a lower court declared that the machine gun ban was unconstitutional.

Those factors help explain Fenty's uncharacteristic reluctance to take a firm stand at a news conference last week to discuss what happens next. Reporters wanted to know whether Fenty would petition the Supreme Court, which analysts say most certainly would take the case, or rewrite the regulations to target guns in a less restrictive way.

"It's a little early to say which way we're going to go," Fenty said at the news conference. "We will weigh everything."

Now that the full appeals court has declined to review the case, Fenty has 90 days to decide whether to petition the Supreme Court.

Other cities and states are closely tracking what happens. Leaders of several, including New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) and Massachusetts Gov. Deval L. Patrick (D), declined to publicly comment on what they thought Fenty should do, or talk about their level of anxiety about the fate of their own laws.

Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, was quite direct: "We're very concerned about this case because if it's allowed to stand, and if it becomes the law of the land, it places in jeopardy just about every other gun law you can think of."

But Helmke also said: "The D.C. law is an easy one to shoot at. Factually, it's a tougher one to get behind and defend. Background checks and assault weapons ban -- you can defend all day long. . . . Why is this the one we're going to be taking up to the Supremes?"

Helmke said he wouldn't advise the mayor to avoid the Supreme Court challenge. He said several gun-control experts worry just as much about the cases the gun lobby might be able to win if the city doesn't keep fighting.

But dire consequences are not expected by some legal experts, including Sanford Levinson, a noted constitutional scholar and liberal-leaning professor at the University of Texas who made news when he wrote that he, too, believed the Second Amendment protected individual rights to bear arms.

Levinson said the D.C. Circuit opinion "went out of its way" to stress that reasonable regulations, such as registration for owners and screening for criminals, were appropriate. He said he doubts the current Supreme Court would go further than that to affirm that demand for reasonable restrictions.

"The court seemed to say, 'Look, you need to come up with a better reason than D.C. did,' " Levinson said.

Robert A. Levy, the lawyer who spearheaded the D.C. residents' challenge in the Parker case, said Fenty has a duty to the people of the city and should not be making tactical decisions to outmaneuver gun-rights groups in the courts. "Their obligation is not to engage in strategic lawyering," Levy said.

Fenty said he will make his decision with the safety of D.C. residents "foremost" in his calculus.

"The residents of the District of Columbia expect us to fight aggressively to make our laws as strong as possible," Fenty said. "We ultimately believe we will prevail."

Staff researchers Meg Smith and Julie Tate contributed to this report.