Lyle Denniston over at SCOTUSblog reports on a little-noticed development this week: the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals seems to have narrowed its ruling (pdf) from March of this year (which the Supreme Court will likely review) regarding the District's gun laws. The original decision was understood to have invalidated not only D.C.'s ban on handguns, which garnered most of the attention, but also its provision stipulating that all firearms, handguns or otherwise, be disassembled or have trigger locks engaged. Now, however, in what Denniston describes as "a highly unusual order," the circuit court has clarified its earlier decision, writing that "our opinion does not specifically address the constitutionality of that statute as it applies to shotguns and rifles." This is noteworthy in part because in its appeal to the Supreme Court the District advances the argument that its handgun ban passes constitutional muster because residents are allowed to own other types of guns--a line of reasoning that may be less convincing to the justices if those other types of guns are required to be kept in a state that renders them, in the words of the circuit court, "virtually useless to face an unexpected threat in the home." So, bottom line, all you D.C. residents who had celebrated the March ruling by unlocking and assembling your rifles and shotguns better think again. --Josh Patashnik