About halfway through James Wiggins Jr.’s handgun safety class in Rockville, he sends around a 9 mm Glock. His students—four from Virginia and two from D.C.—have already watched a video and handled magazines and bullets of different calibers.

The hollow bullets, they’re told, expand inside the body, causing greater blood loss.

The students grip the gun, which is heavier than expected. Omar Capers of Rosslyn turns it around in his hands and looks down the empty barrel.

“It makes me so nervous pointing a gun at myself,” he says.

Placed throughout the classroom at the Gilbert Indoor Range are binders containing handgun safety rules from California. Wiggins believes these guidelines are sensible and comprehensive and that every jurisdiction should use them. He has one place especially in mind: Washington, D.C.

“The mayor should consider adopting these rules when the handgun ban is overturned,” he says.

The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule in June on District of Columbia v. Heller, deciding if District residents will be able to purchase handguns legally for the first time since 1976. Wiggins, a former D.C. EMT who has been teaching people—mainly security officers—how to use firearms since the late ’70s, is pretty confident he knows which way this will go. For about 15 years, Wiggins has copied, cut out, and collected newspaper articles and documents he thinks debunks the idea that handguns used for personal protection are illegal.... Continued