The prospect of the District dabbling in gun sales was sidestepped for now after the D.C. Council dropped a bill Tuesday that would have made the city a federal firearms licensee. The bill called on the mayor to appoint an agency to act as the middleman for residents attempting to bring legally purchased handguns into the district. The only federal firearms licensee in the District, Charles Sykes, closed shop in April, creating a de facto ban on handguns.
D.C. Councilman Phil Mendelson pulled the bill off the table in the afternoon, citing the mayor’s new efforts to find a home for Sykes’ business.
“In the last several days, there have been significant steps taken by the executive to the District’s only FFL back open. I’m willing to see if those efforts succeed,” Mendelson said, adding that he would come back in September with the legislation if Sykes was not open for business by then.
“My concern is that the current situation makes us more vulnerable to intervention by Congress, who will meddle with our gun laws,” he said.
The Supreme Court ordered D.C. to lift its gun ban in 2008.
Council members expressed opposition to the bill at a morning breakfast, and Mayor Vincent Gray voiced his disapproval in a letter, saying the bill would burden the city with liability and undermine the city’s pro-gun control stance.
Gray said he was making “extraordinary efforts” to assist Sykes in finding a new business location. That may include allowing him to set up shop in a government office building, a Gray spokesman said.
Sykes said he submitted several potential addresses to zoning authorities over the last few months, but all had been rejected. D.C. zoning laws enacted in 2009 require gun shops to be in commercial districts and 300 feet from schools, libraries and other landmarks.
Deputy Mayor Victor Hoskins’ office left Sykes a phone message Saturday saying they were working on the problem and would get back to him.
The deputy mayor’s office is cross-referencing zoning laws with available property to help Sykes find a new storefront, spokesman Jose Sousa said.
Sykes said he hoped they could help.
“The district is the one that put these zoning regulations and restrictions together. I would hope they would have an upper hand in knowing where I could get an office at. But if they don’t know, then I guess no one knows,” he said.
