District handgun owners would have 90 days to register their illegal weapons under a bill Council Member Marion Barry, D-Ward 8, proposed Tuesday.
The bill, titled the Gun Violence Reduction Act of 2007, also seeks to tighten penalties for people caught with an unregistered handgun by increasing fines and prison sentences. It also establishes a fund to assist firearm victims.
Barry, who was the victim of a robbery at gunpoint in his apartment last year, said opening up the registration for law-abiding citizens would help police monitor the guns. He estimated that thousands of District residents own handguns illegally for protection purposes. Handgun ownership in the District became a criminal offense in 1975.
“Start with the premise that even though we have the strongest gun law in the United States,” Barry said, “it’s ineffective.”
The bill increases the fine and maximum sentence for people found in violation of the District gun laws from $1,000 and a year in prison to $10,000 and a 15-year maximum sentence for first-time offenders. Second-time offenders would face 30 years in prison and a $20,000 fine.
The District’s gun laws in have remained an explosive issue in the city for years. In 2003, the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, sued on behalf of six residents seeking to strike down the handgun ban as unconstitutional. U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan upheld the ban in 2004.
The bill will likely face opposition from District residents and officials who consider gun violence too rampant right now.
“It sounds right off the cuff like a bad idea,” Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence spokesman Peter Hamm said.
