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]

Libertarian ping! To be added or removed from my ping list freepmail me or post a message here.

[TheKidster]

No, I'm suspicious also. Exactly because it is Barry who is pushing this. Why can't somebody with a shred of credibility jump on this? Why does it have to be an excrackhead?

[gondramB]

I've also read that support for school vouchers is increasing in D.C.

There is nothing like being the victim of a failed policy to get one interested in alternatives.

For example I saw a bunch of business people on TV yesterday who generally oppose any regulation talking about placing requirements on Airlines to let people off planes (after 5 hours trapped).