D.C. Councilman Phil Mendelson released the text of his emergency legislation to make the District a federal firearms licensee, able to sell and transfer guns to citizens. The resolution calls on Mayor Vince Gray to appoint an agency to act as the FFL for the city, which currently has none and therefore no way to legally transfer handguns into the city since proprietor Charles Sykes closed the sole gun shop in D.C. in April.
Federal and district laws require handguns crossing the D.C. border to be shipped to an FFL before the owner can take possession of them. But critics say Mendelson’s new measure won’t do anything to get D.C. out of a lawsuit that’s about to get pricey, and won’t do anything to change the strict zoning rules that are keeping Sykes from reopening in the first place.
“They need to come to terms with the fact that the Second Amendment applies to them,” Alan Gura, the attorney who is bringing the new lawsuit against D.C., said.
Gura filed suit in federal court in May on behalf of the Second Amendment Foundation and three D.C. residents who legally own handguns in other states but can’t bring them into the city under current law. Right now the United States, Virginia and D.C. are all defendants, but Gura said that could change if D.C. would just drop its FFL rule.
“All they’re doing by maintaining it is buying themselves a lawsuit — I’ve told them this,” Gura, who won the 2008 landmark Supreme Court case against the District forcing it to lift its handgun ban, said. “The D.C. government is playing games. … This is going to wind up once again costing the taxpayers.”
Sykes would appreciate it if the District redrew its zoning regulations. He said he has proposed several new addresses for his business to the District since being forced to relocate, and all of them have been rejected. He said the District was making it very difficult for any gun shops to open in the city.
“If I’m having a problem finding office space, and I’ve been in business since 1994, what do you think someone new is going through?” he said.
The D.C. council is expected to vote on the emergency measure at its last legislative meeting for the summer on Tuesday.
