Even if the Supreme Court were to overturn the District of Columbia’s handgun ban tomorrow, it still wouldn’t be immediately possible for District residents to buy the weapon, federal officials told The Examiner on Tuesday.

First, there are no stores in the District that have the required federal license to sell guns, said Mike Campbell, a spokesman for the District’s office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

But anyone thinking that means a quick trip across District borders to buy a handgun should think again.

Federal law makes it illegal for handguns to be purchased directly by an out-of-state buyer, Campbell said. When nonresident buyers purchase a handgun, they can’t pick up the handgun until it’s shipped to a dealer in their home states.

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For example, before Seung-Hui Cho shot and killed 32 people and wounded many at Virginia Tech last year, he bought two semiautomatic pistols online but had to go to a nearby gun dealer to acquire them; they couldn’t legally be shipped from an out-of-state dealer directly to Cho.

And because there are no gun dealers in the District, there’s no one on the other end to receive the shipment. In other words, until a gun dealer opens shop in the District, it won’t be possible for District residents to buy handguns anywhere. It’ll only be a matter of time, however, before gun dealers open in the District since there are no regulations preventing gun stores, said Alan Gura, who argued against the ban in the Supreme Court on Tuesday.

“The marketplace will deal with that,” Gura said. “This is America, some entrepreneur will rise to meet the demand, and there is a demand to own handguns by law-abiding citizens.”

The Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based Professional Gun Retailers Association agrees, spokesman Andrew Molchan said. “We’re expecting a couple of gun stores in Washington, D.C., eventually.”

fklopott@dcexaminer.com