A U.S. House committee is expected to consider legislation today that would wipe out the District’s gun laws and strip the city of its authority to regulate the firearms beyond what federal law allows.
The legislation, a bipartisan submission backed by nearly 50 Democrats and strongly endorsed by the National Rifle Association, would repeal the District’s ban on semiautomatic weapons, prohibit the city from setting rules that “unduly burden” the possession or use of a firearm, abolish D.C.’s registration requirements, and allow residents to purchase weapons in Maryland or Virginia.
Conservative Mississippi Democrat Travis Childers introduced the bill less than a month after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the city’s handgun ban unconstitutional. Gun rights advocates are irate over the District’s continuing prohibition on semiautomatic firearms and its strict gun registration requirements.
Both sides exchanged heated rhetoric during a hearing Tuesday before the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. The panel, chaired by Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., is expected to consider some form of the bill today.
Waxman slammed the legislation as “extreme” and a “wholesale evisceration of the District’s gun laws.” D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier warned that the measure will make it “far more difficult for the Metropolitan Police Department to ensure the safety and security of the nation’s capital” — whether from a coordinated attack or “the unsophisticated lone wolf terrorist.”
“Imagine how difficult it will be for law enforcement to safeguard the public, not to mention the new president at the inaugural parade, if carrying semiautomatic rifles were to suddenly become legal in Washington,” Lanier told the panel.
Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., argued that the violent crime rate is lower in Alexandria, in gun-friendly Virginia, “because the criminal knows if he comes into your home and tries to attack you, you have a way to respond.” Rep. Mark Souder, another Indiana Republican, accused the District of trying to “reinstate one of the most failed laws in the history of America.”
The bill to be considered by the panel today, introduced by D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, would simply direct the District to adopt gun laws consistent with the Supreme Court’s ruling. Backers of the broader legislation will try to amend Norton’s proposal to reflect the NRA-backed language.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has reportedly agreed to bring a gun bill to the floor to appease her party’s conservative wing, leading Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., to accuse Democratic leadership of abandoning its “professed allegiance” to D.C. Home Rule.
