"The District's understandable, but overzealous, desire to restrict the right to carry in public a firearm for self-defense to the smallest possible number of law-abiding, responsible citizens is exactly the type of policy choice the Justices had in mind," he wrote. The law gives police discretion to grant licenses to applicants who show "good reason to fear injury" or "any other proper reason for carrying a pistol," such as having a job transporting cash or other valuables.