Last Thursday, D.C. got one step closer to gaining representation in Congress, as the Senate approved the D.C. House Voting Rights Act. If approved by the House of Representatives, the bill would provide the District with a voting House representative. But don’t uncork the champagne bottles just yet—the bill includes an amendment which would limit the District government’s authority to restrict the ownership of firearms, repeal the ban on semiautomatic weapons, and remove gun-registration requirements, making D.C. one of the easiest cities in the United States in which to obtain a gun. It would serve only to increase violence in the District, placing both the city’s residents and the development of its poorest and already violent neighborhoods in danger. The amendment is a perfect example of what makes District’s lack of representation so dangerous.
The amendment’s supporters argue that the District’s current firearms laws are unconstitutional, pointing to the June 2008 Supreme Court decision declaring D.C.’s gun control regulations to be in violation of the Second Amendment. Though the amendment itself passed with a decisive and bipartisan 62-36 Senate vote, some members of Congress predict that the upcoming negotiations between the Senate and the House to determine the bill’s final form will likely kill the amendment, since the House’s version of the bill does not include such an amendment.
Even if the House persuades the Senate to strike the amendment from the bill, however, it will likely return, either as a separate bill or as an amendment to another. In the event that the amendment is reintroduced—which is probable, given its proponents’ cries of unconstitutionality—D.C. House Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton will have a tough time defeating it, even if the Voting Rights Act passes and gives her a fair voice in the House. Though the amendment’s opponents include such Senatorial heavyweights as Dianne Feinstein (D-Cal.) and Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.), the resounding bipartisan support the amendment received in the Senate, as well as recent Supreme Court ruling, ensure a bitter fight.
The D.C. House Voting Rights Act will almost certainly be approved by the House and signed by President Obama. In addition to granting Delegate Norton a vote in the House, it would open up the way for the District to receive two Senators with full voting powers. With this type of representation, the District would have much greater clout in Congress than it currently does. The District will need as much power as it can muster to fight dangerous pro-gun legislation in the future.
