Posted on 07/01/2005 12:44:54 PM PDT by neverdem
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Gun ban repeal looks like a sure shotBy MIKE RUPERT The District is inching closer to getting its nearly 30-year ban on handguns and semiautomatic weapons yanked by Congress. The House voted 259-161 Thursday to approve an amendment allowing loaded shotguns, rifles and handguns registered before 1976 to be kept in homes and businesses. The amendment was added during debate on the D.C. appropriations bill, which was expected to pass late Thursday night. The amendment, introduced by Rep. Mark Edward Souder, R-Ind., passed with 50 Democrats - nearly a quarter of the caucus - voting in favor. "Being allowed to protect one's self and one's family at home is fundamental," said Souder spokesman Martin Green. "The House has a long history of supporting Second Amendment rights. This is the first step in restoring those rights to the citizens of D.C." Souder is also working to pass the D.C. Personal Protection Act that would repeal all of the District's gun laws - some of the toughest in the country. District's rebuttal D.C. Mayor Anthony A. Williams, who along with D.C. Chief Charles H. Ramsey, spoke out against the repeal at a House government reform hearing Tuesday, said the amendment is a mistake. "It's discouraging when members of Congress who don't represent our city try to shove their laws down our throats," the mayor said. "The entire community in the District is working hard to keep handgun violence down, and this effort by the U.S. Congress would take us in the wrong direction." Souder did not attend the Tuesday hearing. D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, who has lead the effort against the repeal for years, said the ideas behind the amendment were "insane." "This isn't about self-defense," Norton said Thursday on the House floor. "This is about pressing forward [Souder's] preferences on the District of Columbia where unanimously every mayor of the city of D.C., every City Council member overwhelmingly, all the residents have voted 'no.' "Let me hear the co-sponsors argue with a straight face that allowing guns in people's homes will reduce rather than increase the gun violence in the District of Columbia," she said. Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., who chairs the House government reform committee, said he believes this is the beginning of a "dangerous assault" on home rule in the District. "There is an appropriate place for a debate on D.C.'s gun laws - and that place is the chambers of the District of Columbia Council, not the floor of the House of Representatives," Davis said. "I'm not saying I agree with the District's gun ban. Frankly, I don't; I think it goes too far. [Yet] D.C. leaders have enacted gun laws that reflect their constituents' view that any increase in the number of guns in the District increases the odds that crimes will be committed with those guns. That's their view, and it should be respected." Souder's Personal Protection Act would end the District's 1976 ban on handguns and semiautomatic weapons, erase registration requirements for ammunition, legalize unregistered weapons and allow possession of guns in workplaces and homes. Proponents said the D.C. weapon ban is unconstitutional, despite repeated court decisions upholding the ban. Davis said one of those court decisions is on appeal, and wonders why repeal supporters are pushing so hard. "Proponents of this amendment have the opportunity for the courts to declare that the D.C. ban violates the Second Amendment," Davis said. "So what's the rush? What are they afraid of? We, and for that matter, the City Council, can consider the gun ban in light of the result of that case." Senate's role as spoiler The same act passed the House in 2004 by a vote of 250 to 171, but was not taken up in the Senate. This year, Sens. George Allen, R-Va., and Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, a former D.C. subcommittee chairwoman, are among 31 co-sponsors of the bill. A Hutchison spokesman said that number was expected to reach 50 by the time it reaches a vote. In 2004, her bill had 10 co-sponsors. "The people of D.C. are still being denied their constitutional right. Every day a single mother goes home and can't protect her children," said Hutchison spokesman Chris Paulitz. "The citizens of D.C. are being left defenseless and are having their constitutional rights trampled."
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In other words, no significant change from the status-quo for the vast majority of DC residents.
DC is a cesspool of violent crime....that gun ban is working like a goddamn charm.
DC should have mandatory gun ownership law (ala Switzerland)!
Nothing else has helped control crime.
And how has it been working out for you?
What Washington, DC really needs is concealed carry!
"The House voted 259-161 Thursday to approve an amendment allowing loaded shotguns, rifles and handguns registered before 1976 to be kept in homes and businesses. The amendment was added during debate on the D.C. appropriations bill, which was expected to pass late Thursday night."
Worthless.
Those who oppose this, are just worried about more black bodies showing up, as whites defend themselves. That's all this is. "Don't be shootin' at our black folk, even if they are trying to rob or rape you."
What are they gonna say when the number of breakins, muggings, rapes, etc. drops off suddenly becuase ceiminals don't know if their victim is armed?
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
Where is there more gun violence: DC, where handguns in homes are outlawed, or Switzerland where fully automatic military rifles are kept in many homes?
I live 10 minutes away and I can assure you that conceal carry or the Swiss idea might pull that crime rate down. It is horrible to see all the children being wanonly killed "by accident" the way things are.
Nonsense. The vast, vast majority of murder victims in DC are black. Allowing easier access to legal guns in DC would lead to LESS murdered black victims than there are now.
Murders in DC rarely involve a black shooter killing a white victim.
Do you really think the gun ban in DC works in any way, shape or form when it comes to preventing gun deaths?
The people in DC have shown that home rule in that city does not work. Maybe it's time to consider shifting control of DC back to Congress.
What Washington, DC really needs is concealed carry!
So is blatantly panhandling to the gun industry by meddling in the affairs of people who didn't elect you, Congressman. Are you lost? Do you own a map of your own district?
I guess that "Rambo" Rowan (remember him -- liberal black columnist who shot a kid with an illegal handgun when the kid was swimming in his pool) will be retroactively absolved of his crime. I believe the jury could not reach a verdict back then (I would say it was "hung" but might be accused of racial or sexual bias), but he was not retried. Now his son (who supplied the gun) is on the NRA board.
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