D.C. government may soon be a licensed handgun dealer — apparently the first state or municipality in the nation to do so. In a twist for the District, which once banned the weapons before its rules were struck down by the Supreme Court, Councilman Phil Mendelson is sponsoring emergency legislation that would make D.C. a licensed firearms dealer.
Under the legislation, gun owners who want to bring handguns into the District would have their guns shipped to government offices to get the stamp of approval to carry them within D.C. borders.
D.C. needs the law, Mendelson said, because the only licensed firearms dealer in the District is temporarily closed for business as of April. That amounts to a de facto ban on handguns, since no one can now legally bring a gun into the District.
The owner of the lone gun shop, Charles Sykes, is still searching for a new location after the D.C. Office of Zoning rejected several of his proposed new addresses.
The District’s 2009 zoning rules, enacted after the Supreme Court struck down its handgun ban, require that gun shops be in commercial districts and 300 feet away from any schools, libraries, or other landmarks.
“They’ve tied their own hands,” Sykes said.
Mendelson said it would be easier to make the District a firearms dealer than change the zoning rules to allow Sykes to open shop again.
Meanwhile the District faces a lawsuit from three D.C. residents for their inability to transport their handguns into the District, with Alan Gura, the same attorney who represented Dick Heller in his landmark high-court victory over the D.C. gun ban, representing them. Gura and other experts said they had never heard of another state or municipality acquiring a license to deal firearms.
Gura said the district needs to relax its zoning rules.
“They are asking for additional litigation if they maintain this type of posture,” he said. “Maybe if they regulated the stores in a normal fashion they’d see them pop up.”
Chief of Police Cathy Lanier suggested early Thursday on WTOP radio that perhaps Walmart could step in to fill the gun dealer role.
The council is expected to take up Mendelson’s proposal July 12.
