Guns Over Democracy

Washington Post ^ | 7/4/5 | Editors

[SmithL]

PARLIAMENTARIANS gathered in Washington this holiday weekend from Europe and North America arrived just in time to witness the U.S. House of Representatives -- on the eve of the anniversary commemorating the signing of the Declaration of Independence -- trample upon the right of self-determination. Morphing themselves into city council members, a House majority overturned a city law and voted to allow D.C. residents to keep in their homes loaded shotguns and rifles, as well as handguns bought before 1976, unbounded by trigger locks or disassembled. The deed itself makes a mockery of Congress as a federal body. If the action is allowed to stand, however, the consequences could be even worse: The nation's capital will become a deadlier place in which to live.

The gun safety law that the House voted to repeal makes all the sense in the world. It enjoys the full backing of the city's mayor, council, police chief and, most important of all, the city's residents. Perhaps residents and their leaders want the law on the books because they know, even if the House does not, that properly locked or secured guns help prevent gun violence and accidental shootings. Perhaps District residents support their gun safety laws because they now see crime in their city at a 20-year low. Perhaps they also resent this imposition of House judgment because District residents, through their elected leaders, are authorized under the Home Rule Act to make their own laws. But perhaps they are outraged most of all because they have no vote in Congress. At the very time that the House was telling Americans living in the District what their local laws should be, Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D), the District's representative on Capitol Hill, had to stand by and watch

[Paleo Conservative]

I thought it was the US CONGRESS who passed the ban in the first place?

It wasn't. It was the city council. Washington DC was set up as a special district specifically to be a neutral site for the Capitol. Congress was given controll over the district for very good reasons. Imagine if local prosecutors in Washington DC who are elected by the local voters had jurisdiction to investigate congressmen. There would be someone similar to Ronnie Earl in Austin who would bring charges against as many Republicans as possible. There are federal workers who live in MD or VA who are afraid that DC would charge tolls on the roads and bridges entering DC if DC were made into a state. Washington DC was and is intended to be run for the convenience of our elected congressmen and senators not the local population which was deliberately denied representation in Congress. If the locals don't like it, they are free to leave the city.

[Paleo Conservative]

Well maybe a half-step in the right direction. Why not just get rid of 1976 ban on firearms in DC altogether?

Why not go further. Why not allow concealed carry and reciprocally recognize concealed carry permits from all states that issue them?

[etcetera]

So Congress signs a bill and "poof!" guns appear in every house in the D.C. area? Or do the people still have choice?

[B4Ranch]

>>I usually support less gun control, for most Americans, but I do believe that there may be some people who are basically too stupid to own guns or sharp objects.'Nuff said.<<

Why do we keep re-electing them? Who is more stupid, us or them?

[txnativegop]

Point well taken! I wasn't thinking clearly, haven't had my caffeine this morning/evening.

[Rifleman]

It is almost never wise to interfere with the workings of natural selection.

[Smartaleck]

The Post fails to appreciate that the "City of Washington" is a guest, so to speak, within the FEDERAL District of Columbia.

"The nation's capital will become a deadlier place in which to live."

Almost the same exact wording that appeared over and over when Tx passed the right to carry laws. Didn't happen and if anything, crime went down.

[M Kehoe]

The nation's capital will become a deadlier place in which to live.

The editors at the Compost are either blind or deaf. First of all, DC cannot become a deadlier place than it already is. Second, as is well known from all of the studies, crime drops when the general public is readily armed.

It must be hard going through life fat, drunk and stupid.

5.56mm

[libstripper]

Everywhere gun bans and restrictions have been loosened crime has dropped. See John Lott's, More Guns, Less Crime. In spite of massive efforts by the gun grabbers, nobody has been able to refute his exhaustive research. Every state (currently about 2/3 of all the states) that's adopted shall issue CCW has found that it worked to reduce violent crime. None has repealed or stiffened its shall issue law and many have liberalized those laws, realizing how beneficial they are. This supremely ignorant, intellectually incompetent Wa Poo editorial is like a learned article published in 1600, after the Magellan expedition and Drake circumnavigated the world, claiming the world was flat.

[B4Ranch]

When the Senator says


A Patriots reply would be,

Senator, xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
The 1st Amendment is for us to talk. If you don't like my questions perhaps we should go to
the 2nd Amendment before things get too far out of hand in our America like they did in
Germany, Korea and Iraq!

Let me ask you once more,
When was the last time you read the US Constitution and your Oath of Office?
Do you still support them? Now what will it be? The 1st or the 2nd?

Sir, the choice is yours!

[El Gato]

District residents, through their elected leaders, are authorized under the Home Rule Act to make their own laws.

But they are not authorized to make laws in conflict with the Constitution of the United States. This they have done, so Congress, which passed the Home Rule Act in the first place, needs to slap them upside the head, in hopes of knocking some sense into their heads. (They being the elected "leaders" of DC)

[El Gato]

Almost the same exact wording that appeared over and over when Tx passed the right to carry laws

And pretty much everywhere else, from Florida to Minnesota. Florida was going to become the gunshine state. The only negative side effect there was the goblins started hitting rental cars, since they knew those folks would not be armed. So the rental car companies, or most of them, stopped putting highly visible ID on the their cars.

In no state where CHL has been instituted in the past decade or so have crime rates, or even accidental shootings gone up enough to be statistically significant.

I guess what the Post is staying is that the residents of Washington City are less responsible than the residents of the the thirty some states which have CHL, and of virtually all the rest which do not ban mere possession of a loaded firearm in the home or business. I'd say that's a pretty racist statement, but then gun control has often been based on racism or nativism.

[Joe Brower]

"he nation's capital will become a deadlier place in which to live."

As the murder capital of the U.S., that would be damned unlikely.

Just more mewlings from the Nation of Cowards. May posterity forget that such pathetic creatures were ever our countrymen.

Happy 4th of July, folks.

[basil]

This is disgusting beyond words.

[Sir Gawain]

The 2nd Amendment trumps your commie wishes, Compost. Now stfu.

[gatex]

"but I do believe that there may be some people who are basically too stupid to own guns or sharp objects.'Nuff said."

Senator Dianne Feinstein believes you are one of those people.

[Towed_Jumper]

"The nation's capital will become a deadlier place in which to live." ...if DC becomes "deadlier" for the criminals getting killed by law-abiding (and armed citizens), this would be a good thing.

[vannrox]

Washington, D.C. is NOT a State.

Therefore the laws that they inact may or not be in alignement with the constitutional limitations confired to States.

[dufekin]

Why not restore the Second Amendment and impose the gun-related laws of the State of Alaska on the District? (Concealed-carry permits are considered automatically granted.)

[muir_redwoods]

So, with the gun ban in effect in DC, which city in America has the highest murder rate?