In 1973, Washington won home rule: the right to govern most of its affairs free from Congressional interference. Now Congress is considering a bill that would take away the city’s self-government on one of the most important issues in the District: handguns.
When the Supreme Court overturned the District’s handgun ban last June, the City Council responded with a restrictive law that allowed handguns while keeping the most popular type, semi-automatics, illegal within the city limits. Unhappy with the District’s remaining restrictions, Representative Travis Childers (D-Miss.) has proposed a bill in Congress that changes D.C.’s gun law. Besides legalizing semi-automatic pistols, it would lift the requirement that guns be disassembled or trigger-locked in homes and eliminate steps in the gun registration process. While Childers’ bill is in the spirit of the Supreme Court ruling, the District should be allowed to make its own gun laws.
City Councilman Phil Mendelson (D-At Large) is trying to pass a similar bill through the Council that would allow semi-automatic handguns. Mendelson’s law should have precedence over Childers’—gun control is a local, not a national, matter.
“What we’re trying to accomplish with this law is to address the concerns of the Supreme Court,” David Knauss, Mendelson’s spokesperson, said.
The text of Childers’ bill shows how out of touch he is with the District. The bill says the District has the highest per capita murder rate in the country, blaming this dubious distinction in part upon the lack of handguns for self-defense. In reality, the District has not had the highest per capita murder rate in the country for several years. Childers is operating under outdated stereotypes—and statistics—about the District to write legislation, clear evidence that ruling D.C. should be left to the people who live there.
Unfortunately, the Childers bill passed the House yesterday by a vote of 266-185, with 85 Democrats voting yes, which is more a sign of the NRA’s stranglehold on Congress than anything else. The fight isn’t over yet, though. Senator Diane Feinsten (D-Calif.) told Congressional Quarterly that she plans to block the legislation should it come to a vote in the Senate. “I’d filibuster it,” she told the newspaper. “You bet your life I would.” It’s heartening to see that at least some of our national representatives still have the District’s interests at heart.
