MILLER: Emily got her gun!(DC)

I finally got my gun in Washington, D.C. I brought it home today from the District’s firearms’ registry office.

After months of aggravation, hundreds of dollars in fees, countless hours jumping over hurdles, I am now a gun owner and finally exercising my second amendment right to keep arms (bearing arms is still illegal in the nation’s capital).

When I first started the “Emily Gets Her Gun” series, I thought I would be waiting in long lines and filling out lots of paperwork. I never could have imagined that the D.C. gun laws made it so unearthly difficult to get a legal handgun. However, I also never could have believed that this newspaper series would encourage change in Washington's gun laws.

The bad guys buy guns off the street in five minutes, and the city has no record of the transaction. Law-abiding citizens have to take a five-hour class that is only taught outside of the District, pay $465 in fees, sign six forms, pass a written test on gun laws, get fingerprinted, be subject to a police ballistics test and take days off work.

Five minutes and no fees for an illegal gun. Weeks and almost $500 in fees for a legal gun. Which option do you think most people in this city are choosing?

Of course, I went the legal route and this final day at Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) headquarters was as much a pointless waste of my time and city resources as the other days spent in this registration process.

After the 10-day waiting period ended, I called the registry office and was told that my application was approved. I made an appointment for 11 a.m. on Wednesday with the city’s only legal gun dealer, Charles Sykes, to give him the approved form.

A few years ago, I bought a gun over my lunch break at Central Loan & Gun Exchange. I walked out, in downtown Seattle, with my Dan Wesson Model 15 revolver in a brown paper bag. That venerable place practically dripped with history. It closed down in 2007, along with the yuppification of the neighborhood.

Now, I have a great FFL dealer that I can email, and order most anything I want. It’s great living in one of the free states, even if it is lefty-stinking Washington.

This would be better...

I believe that most of the federal gun control laws are located in two portions of the federal code, in Title 18 and in Title 26. Both Title 18 and Title 26 are derived from the NFA of 1934, the GCA of 1968, and the FOPA of 1986.
Under Article 6, Paragraph 2.. It plainly states that:
This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof; and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land; and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, anything in the constitution or laws of any state to the contrary notwithstanding.
Further, the 14th Amendment, Section 1 states:
All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
As a taxing agency, the BATFE had the purpose of registering certain classes of firearms to ensure that the proper taxes were being paid. With the closing of the Registry to Class III firearms manufactured after May 19, 1986 (Hughes Amendment to the FOPA, Pub.:. 99-308, 100 Stat. 449), this tax is no longer payable and is a de facto infringement.
With the BATFE now under the auspices of the Department of Justice, rather than the Internal Revenue Service, their stated mission goal is now no longer tax collection, which is Constitutionally legal, but enforcement of a law which blatantly violates the express language and intent of the Second Amendment.
Therefore, let it be purposed that a Bill be enacted to repeal the following from the USC.
Here’s my proposed text for a repeal:
Firearms Freedom Act
1) United States Code Title 18, Part I, Chapter 44 is hereby repealed in its entirety.
2) United States Code Title 26, Subtitle E, Chapter 53 is hereby repealed in its entirety.

This restores the true intent of the Second Amendment, allows the FBI and BATFE to re-purpose those resources and personal to fighting the terror threat, removes a Constitutional crisis that has lasted too long, and brings our laws back into compliance with both the Miller (1934) and Heller (2008) Supreme Court decisions as well as numerous lower Court decisions like McDonald V Chicago(2010).

that is better but the point is there should be no infringement

if you are a free man then you should have that right

Brady Bill was the turning point...those of us who remember pre Brady recall how it was...just show proof of ID...some places not even that

I doubt we will ever get back before that time...peacefully anyhow

one could argue 1968 Gun Control Act....yet another minority directed piece of legislation to spring from the fabulous 1960s was the real culprit..

that act which came on the heels of urban race riots which resembled Beruit to some of us gave Congress the neat idea to tighten up gun ownership for some...sorta like how Crack gave us Brady and other fun stuff.

what a mess

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