Freedom from fear is also a right (Marion Barry says suspend DC Gun Control!!)

The Washington DC Examiner ^ | February 19, 2007

[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.

[traviskicks]

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[The Spirit Of Allegiance]

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.

WRONG. Barry is the only one NOT surrendering.

[Drammach]

Did he stop doing crack?

Well, he stopped getting caught..

[The Spirit Of Allegiance]

It SOUNDED so un-Barry like...good catch.

[TYVets]

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 ,,,,,

A 3 month window?

If I move to DC after that I am SOL?

[philetus]

Maybe he's just high.

[Nailbiter]

from experience sounds similar to fireworks

[CT102ndInfSister]

Am I wrong for being suspicious about this whole thing?

[1COUNTER-MORTER-68]

NO...

[supercat]

...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.

I suppose if I had to be living in DC, I might figure the cost of a cheap but decent handgun was a worthwhile investment for the protection it would offer in the months I could keep it before the government decided it needed to steal it.

[sig226]

You forgot the ho.

[Sir Francis Dashwood]

A more conservative position than Giuliani!!!

[Atlas Sneezed]

...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...

---

Indeed. Until they let CCW tourists carry, it will still be a crime hellhole.

[ctdonath2]

Methinks this has far more to do with the Parker case being pushed thru the courts. By timing the "amnesty" to coincide with the next deliberation and ruling on Parker's appeals, they can defuse the challenge to DC's insane prohibitions by saying "see? you can register arms, so the case is dismissed as moot" - then slam the window shut, forcing Parker et al to start from scratch, stopped by precident of their own failed lower-court rulings.

This isn't about resisting thugs.
This is about stopping a devastating legal ruling ("the 2nd Amendment means what it says") before it happens.
DC is desperate to keep the CCW ban firmly in place - and if that means lifting it briefly so they can tighten it down harder, they will.

[ctdonath2]

Hardly. Barry is playing hardball with grenades.

The Parker case threatens to dismantle the entire DC ban; this amnesty is a strategy to defuse that case and put an even harsher ban in place.

[NRA1995]

Barry just wants to shoot the b**ch if she sets him up again.....

[daviscupper]

If I move to DC after that I am SOL?

If you have to move to DC before, after or ever you will be SOL. DC has been the playground of liberal social engineering for over 40 years. It is "fubar"-ed beyond all hope. Warning to all DC residents: LEAVE ASAP!

[<1/1,000,000th%]

Did I see a pig fly by my window???

[jmc813]

"Holy Crap!" alert

[Dead Corpse]

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.

Here's an idea some of us have been working on. RKBA as an unalienable Right which shall not be infringed. 95% of the folks out there are law abiding and wouldn't commit a crime against anyone else even if we made nukes legal. Why not just give them their Natural Rights back and let our now armed 280 million some odd army clean up the 10-20 million criminals in their own neighborhoods.

Heck, we might even round up some jihadi's our idiot government can't seem to find that they are fairly certain are already here.

We'll need a snappy name to market it... how about, "It's the Constitutional way, stupid!".