DC tightens gun rules after landmark court ruling
December 16th, 2008 by Syd
DC tightens gun rules after landmark court ruling
2 hours ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — The District of Columbia Council passed more regulations for gun owners Tuesday, months after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the city’s 32-year-old handgun ban.
Among other things, the bill requires gun owners to register their weapons every three years and receive training by a certified firearms instructor.
"This bill will be, I think, one of the most progressive registration laws in the country," Council member Phil Mendelson said.
The National Rifle Association accused the city of forcing residents to jump through unnecessary hurdles, thereby undermining the intent of the Supreme Court’s ruling in June that affirmed the right of Americans to keep guns in the home for self defense.
"The D.C. Council continues to try to make it harder and harder for law-abiding citizens to access this freedom," NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre said…
…Tuesday’s bill builds on those regulations. It requires gun owners to spend at least one hour at the firing range and four hours in the classroom with an instructor before registration. The bill also requires a criminal background check for gun owners every six years.
Source: The Associated Press
This is a case study in how criminal bureaucrats break the law while pretending to uphold it. The D.C. Council is obviously defying the Supreme Court, and if our Justice Department had any stones, the entire D.C. Council would be indicted on civil rights violations.
And while we’re on the subject, this is what the Brady Campaign, the Obama Campaign, Mayor Bloomberg, and all of the other enemies of freedom mean when they say “sensible gun control” or “common sense gun control.” That is code for regulations on guns that are so complex, byzantine, and difficult to fulfill that only millionaires with stables of lawyers will be able to own firearms.
To a certain point we get - what we get. People had a chance to review the candidates prior to the election. It certainly is very sad that any of the Bill of Rights are messed with. This Council in Washington has been in power for years. The people in that community need to start voting issues instead of just voting these people back into power.
You can point to the same situation in Illinois. We (the public) vote such lovely politicians into office and think that it is exceptional that one of them is bad. I believe that the rule is that they all eventually come to stand for nothing. They compromise and compromise their original ideas down to where they only stand to get re-elected.
Thank God for the NRA and other gun groups. I wonder if we need to start up other groups to look after those individual rights as well?
Of course, most of this is due to that mindset where the gun is at fault not the people that use the gun. The press is very guilty by explaining things using those rose colored glasses.
[…] GUN NUTS SPOILING FOR A FIGHT—Bloggers weigh in on new gun laws here and here and here and here. And watch out for the angry Steelers fans. (At least they’re not Eagles fans.) […]
Gun rights activists need to coordinate and consider non-violent demonstrations, leading to arrest. This goes against my policy of not being armed when I protest. Not that I’ve ever done the latter: I’m just the Forgotten Man William Graham Sumner wrote about.
These so-called gun free zones are sprouting up everywhere in the wake of Heller. It’s got to stop!
Why don’t a bunch of us go to a place like New York City–or a state university with a blanket gun ownership prohibition–risking arrest, to make the point that the Second Amendment is not alive and well there? We have a situation where an individual right is being treated with contempt by procedure and caprice of unelected bureaucrats who think the Second Amendment is an obtrusive reliquary that needs to be squeezed out of existence.
But since we are productive, hard-working Americans, we have more to lose than the typical unwashed protester, methinks.
Syd,
Thanks, sir, for your kind words in your email. I am a faithful subscriber to your wonderful podcast.
You do an excellent job.
Sorry to say I am a Glockhead, but I respect your Plaxico Burress response. I guess since my wife has occasionally thrown article at me, the idea that “combat tupperware” isn’t implausible is, well, plausible.