An attempt to redraft D.C.’s gun laws in light of a recent Supreme Court ruling misfired Wednesday when Mayor Adrian Fenty’s administration boycotted a council hearing and asked a councilman via letter to put the legislation on hold.
The council’s Judiciary Committee took up a bill that proponents say would comply with the Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision in D.C. v. Heller, which struck down D.C.’s ban on handguns, while still protecting residents from dangerous weapons. But neither acting Attorney General Peter Nickles nor anyone else from his office attended Wednesday’s hearing.
Nickles instead had Fenty legislative liaison JoAnne Ginsberg deliver a letter to District Councilman Phil Mendelson, D-at large, on Wednesday. Itasks Mendelson not to press ahead with legislation adjusting gun-control laws.
“It is important that the executive and legislative branches work closely together in this matter so that a measured response on behalf of the District government can be achieved,” Nickles wrote.
Nickles is one of Mayor Adrian Fenty’s most trusted advisers and was one of the key players in the decision to bring the Heller case to the nation’s top court.
Mendelson said he was “mystified” by Nickles’ no-show and opened Wednesday’s hearing with a lengthy denunciation of Fenty’s right-hand man.
Nickles was vacationing in Maine on Wednesday and could not be reached for comment.
D.C. has about three weeks to redraft its gun laws to comply with the Heller ruling. In the monumental case, the court affirmed for the first time in history that an individual citizen has the right to bear arms for self-defense. The decision has put gun laws around the country under cross hairs.
Mendelson and the Fenty administration have clashed repeatedly over policy questions, but most of the acrimony stems from what Mendelson has called Fenty’s preference for secrecy over openness in government.
