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Norton fears new attack on D.C. gun restrictions
wtop.com ^ | January 24, 2013 | Amanda Iacone

Posted on 01/24/2013 1:50:29 PM PST by Tailgunner Joe

WASHINGTON - A Georgia congressman who has challenged D.C. gun laws in the past wants to allow active duty military members to carry their firearms within the District, a move that Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton calls an attack on home rule.

Republican Rep. Phil Gingrey introduced a non-binding resolutionTuesday that says the highly trained members of America's service branches should be allowed "to exercise fully their rights under the Second Amendment."

"Unless these individuals are granted a waiver as serving in a law enforcement role, they are subject to the District of Columbia's onerous and highly restrictive laws on the possession of firearms," the resolution says.

The resolution, which would not carry the force of law if it passed, was referred to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

In a statement, Norton says she fears the move signals that Republicans will try to weaken D.C. gun laws, which are considered among the toughest in the nation, as Congress considers gun legislation in the wake of the Newtown, Conn., massacre.

"Its introduction this early in the new Congress is an indication that Republicans plan to continue to attack D.C.'s gun safety laws at every opportunity. While I applaud Democrats for announcing that the Senate will consider legislation to prevent gun violence, the District of Columbia and its allies will need to prepare for a fight to protect D.C.'s gun safety laws," Norton says in the written statement.

In 2009, a D.C. voting rights bill was derailed because amendments were added that would have eliminated the District's gun restrictions, according to Norton's office.

According to a blog from Gingrey's office, Gingrey has authored or cosponsored 56 Second Amendment- related bills during his decade in office, including a D.C. military right-to- carry bill that passed the House last year.

Gingrey also says he filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the 2008 Supreme Court case that struck down the D.C. handgun ban and its requirements that rifles and shotguns be kept unloaded and disassembled.

"The right to bear arms is a constitutional guarantee that ensures law-abiding citizens the right to protect and defend themselves and their families," Gingrey says in his blog, posted in the wake of President Obama's announcement of executive actions he would take to address gun violence. "I will work with House Republicans to oppose the restrictions the president put forth. Safeguarding our Second Amendment rights is of paramount importance."

Gingrey, a doctor, made national headlines earlier this month when he defended former Rep. Todd Akin's comments that women's bodies can avoid pregnancy in cases of "legitimate rape."


TOPICS: US: District of Columbia
KEYWORDS: banglist; guncontrol; secondamendment

1 posted on 01/24/2013 1:50:34 PM PST by Tailgunner Joe
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To: Tailgunner Joe
That toad Eleanor Norton is not even a member of Congress. DC is not a state. Why should anyone listen to her?

And "home rule" is a Progressive idea, not in the Constitution, to allow the existence of ghettos of Communism in otherwise reasonable states.

2 posted on 01/24/2013 1:56:27 PM PST by backwoods-engineer ("Remember: Evil exists because good men don't kill the gov officials committing it." -- K. Hoffmann)
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To: Tailgunner Joe

and still I ask, why hasn’t Chicago been taken to court??!!!


3 posted on 01/24/2013 3:22:57 PM PST by Hammerhead
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To: Hammerhead

Chicago has been, and they have lost every single time.


4 posted on 01/24/2013 3:45:16 PM PST by Lurker (Violence is rarely the answer. But when it is it is the only answer.)
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To: Tailgunner Joe

I like it when demorats scurry in FEAR.
Hey Eleanor, THIS is YOUR future~!!!


5 posted on 01/24/2013 3:50:56 PM PST by tet68 ( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)
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