From [HERE] D.C. police are now in charge of facilitating the sale of pistols to city residents after the District’s only federal firearms licensee abruptly stopped work in March, citing a spike in demand during the pandemic.

The move announced Monday gives the police department responsibility for deciding who can legally possess a firearm, and then acting as an intermediary between purchasers and sellers. City residents cannot legally buy guns without such a go-between.

The police department had to apply for a federal firearms license to act as the gun broker. A department spokesman said the license was granted last week.

Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) said officials will continue to seek a private dealer to replace Charles Sykes, the firearm licensee who had been handling such transactions, but they didn’t want to leave people unable to obtain guns in the interim. She said once a replacement is found, police will give up that part of the job.

Several court rulings dating to 2008 forced the District to loosen its restrictive gun laws. A landmark Supreme Court decision in 2008 declared an individual right to gun ownership, and an appeals court ruling in 2017 struck down a city law requiring residents to show a “good reason” to carry a firearm outside the home.

District officials said they could not immediately find a replacement for Sykes and took the unusual step of putting the police in charge of firearms transactions to avoid litigation or other chal­lenges. Bowser said she didn’t want “to run into any constitutional issues or open ourselves up to meddling in our gun laws to outside groups.” [lol]

Jonathan Lowy, director of the legal action project at the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, said he had not heard of another law enforcement agency taking over as a de facto gun dealer to facilitate private firearms transactions. [MORE]