Posted on 02/19/2007 9:34:30 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
WASHINGTON - District residents have been the guinea pigs in a failed 30-year-old experiment in social engineering. Three decades of strict gun control laws have not made the capital city’s streets safer. On the contrary, since 1976, D.C.’s murder rate has increased 32 percent, and violent crimes committed during the first few weeks of 2007 by gun-wielding thugs are up a staggering 50 percent over the same period last year.
None other than former Mayor Marion Barry, now representing Ward 8 on the D.C. Council, is waving the white flag of surrender by introducing legislation to provide potential victims a limited window of opportunity to arm themselves in self defense. “We are in the midst of a gun-violence epidemic,” Barry said. Everybody but the criminals are abiding by the city’s gun control laws [which] have long been among the toughest in the nation. Not only are District residents forbidden from owning firearms not registered before 1977, they must also keep legal rifles and shotguns at home, unloaded, disassembled and useless against an armed intruder.
Barry deserves credit for stating the obvious, considering that most city officials shrink from accounting for the 2,656 illegal firearms recovered last year by the Metropolitan Police Department — weapons current gun control laws were supposed to keep out of the city.
Gun rights groups are mostly suspicious of Barry’s proposal, which would allow D.C. residents with no prior criminal history three months to register handguns before the current ban is reinstated and higher penalties for unregistered weapons kick in. Citing a 2003 report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that found no convincing evidence that gun control laws reduce violence anywhere, they’d prefer the District repeal its gun ban altogether.
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
One definition of a conservative is a liberal who has been mugged in the park. Perhaps, one definition of a conservative politician is a one-time liberal who's entire constituency has been mugged in the park.
Since when?!
Other than that bit right there I would tend to agree with him.
Good move by the gun grabber. There is the little peskey law suit Parker vs DC that probably is not going to go the gungrabbers way. A straight clean 2nd amendment case. He is afraid
And thanks for the info- I'll be reading this later.
Gun control is like trying to reduce drunk driving by making it tougher for sober people to own cars.
Thanks for helping as I am computer ignorant. Ignore my bad typing I really can spell. I know should have used spell check. At least I try to use words unlike the young persons who talk in computer speak.
Ah yes.....Imagine Marion's Washington....
A 55gal drum of crack cocaine and a pallet of weapons at every major intersection....
Let the games begin.
Semper Fi
Did he stop doing crack?
Last June, after living in DC for only 6 months, I had my iPod stolen right out of my hand two doors down from my house in North West DC (the supposedly safe quadrent). There were 5-6 cops on the tiny block at the time because a bunch of highschoolers were brawling on the opposite corner. As I ran after the kid (teenager) who took it, a cop caught up alongside of me running and told me to wait. 45 seconds later he returned to tell me the kid got away. Never heard from it again.
I'm pretty sure I hear gun shots from window about once a week. I don't know what a gun shot in an urban area from a distance sounds like, but I doubt people are dropping 2x4's at 1-3am.
I'm very suspicious of Marion introducing this bill, but if it lets law abiding citizens to own (and maybe carry - the article didn't say) handguns, then I'm all for it and may take advantage myself.
Third time this week.
If we're exchanging common sense slogans, I like quoting Peter Ventoklis: "Taking my gun away because I might shoot someone is like cutting my tongue out just because I might yell, 'FIRE!' in a crowded theatre." (Found in Claire Wolfe's "101 Things to do before the Revolution.")
Also relevant to DC's current gun ban is the Dakota Sioux saying "When you discover you're riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to disout." (Found it in Claire Wolfe's sequil "Don't Shoot the Bastards (Yet).")
Wow! A rare glimmer of common sense breaks through the darkness!
Criminals are by definition people who do not obey laws. Only a moron would expect them to obey gun laws when they routinely break any other law that they don't like.
You have Freepmail.
Uhhh. Are pigs flying?
Own for how long? Did you read the fine print?
...would allow D.C. residents with no prior criminal history three months to register handguns before the current ban is reinstated and higher penalties for unregistered weapons kick in.
Yep, registration - under threat of even more severe penalties - would be a WONDERFUL deal for law-abiding gun owners...
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