From The Washington Post:
The House of Representatives moved Wednesday to block virtually all of the District’s gun restrictions, approving a budget amendment that would leave only federal law to regulate firearms in the nation’s capital.
The District’s gun laws are among the strictest in the country, and they have long been a target for conservative activists who tend not to live in the city but are still rankled by restrictions enacted by locally elected officials.
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) on Wednesday offered an amendment that would prevent the city from spending funds to enforce local gun laws, including registration and education requirements for gun owners, bans on “assault”-type rifles and high-capacity magazines, and strict limits on carrying guns outside the home.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
Massie's amendment passed 242 to 181. Whether it ultimately becomes law will depend on negotiations with the Senate.
Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, who represents the District of Columbia, strongly criticized Representative Massie for his amendment.
“Representative Massie, who first entered Congress in 2012, is trying to appeal to the far right wing and to get a national profile at the expense of the public safety of my constituents. D.C. is a big city that shares the same violence issues as all other big cities, but it is also the nation’s capital, home to the president and countless federal and foreign officials who travel on our streets every day. Representative Massie, who claims at every turn to support local control of local affairs, is using the power of the federal government to overturn the laws of a local jurisdiction. Public safety is the most local of issues.”
http://norton.house.gov/...
Crime involving a firearm continues to be a huge problem in the District of Columbia. According to the Huffington Post:
According to MPD's 2000 annual report, a firearm was used in 81 percent of the 242 homicides recorded that year. The 2011 annual report shows that 71 percent of the 108 homicides last year that involved a firearm.
And when you compare FBI statistics on gun violence in the District of Columbia to the 50 states, it's clear that crimes involving firearms are still a huge problem to tackle. In 2011, there were 242.56 robberies involving firearms per 100,000 people. For assaults involving firearms, the rate was 87.70 per 100,000 people.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
Yet, rather than letting the elected representatives of the District of Columbia weigh the rights of gun owners against the safety rights of the citizens of the District of Columbia, Congressman Massie and the other Republicans did the undemocratic thing and overruled the decisions of the elected representatives of the people of the District of Columbia. According to Congressman Massie's website:
Massie concluded, "Congress has the authority to legislate in this area pursuant to Article I, Section 8, Clause 17 of the Constitution, which gives Congress the authority to “exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever,” over the District of Columbia. It is time for Congress to step in and stop the DC government’s harassment and punishment of law-abiding citizens who simply want to defend themselves."
http://massie.house.gov/...
And I thought that the Republican Party has consistently argued against Washington interfering with decisions that should be left to state and local governments. Apparently, that principle does not apply to the heavily Democratic District of Columbia.
We need D.C. Statehood now. The citizens of the District of Columbia should be able to enact reasonable gun laws without the interference of the U.S. Congress.