Legislation to repeal D.C. gun control laws introduced in House and Senate

By Jim Shepherd

Senators Jon Tester and John McCain have introduced bipartisan legislation that would repeal most gun laws in the District of Columbia. The Second Amendment Enforcement Act, would overrule the District's deliberately complicated registration requirements and would prevent enactment of regulations that prohibit the carrying of firearms in public places. It also puts the bridle on Police Chief Cathy Lanier's discretionary power to deny licenses to law-abiding citizens.

Companion legislation was introduced in the House by Representatives Travis Childers (D-MS) and Mark Souder (R-IN).

Today, Washington Mayor Adrian Fenty, Chief Lanier and the District Council continue to thumb their collective noses at the Supreme Court's Heller decision from 2008. If the District had abided by that ruling, this new legislation would have been unnecessary. Of course, expecting the District's government to do anything responsibly might be setting the bar a bit too-high.

"The city's resistance to change has been both obstructive and childish, " says Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms Chairman Alan Gottlieb, "it's time for grown-ups in Congress to stop this nonsense."

Other than his generous representation of Congress, I couldn't agree more.

Having been in the Supreme Court for the Heller Case, the arrogance and disdain for the Supreme Court shown by both Mayor Fenty and Chief Lanier, before - and after- oral arguments, was not only unseemly, it was unsettling. Today, it's simply infuriating.

From the minute the Heller decision went against them, they've done everything possible to obstruct the process. Instead of working to comply, they've tossed up bureaucratic red tape that does nothing but confound the progress of anyone hoping to legally possess a firearm for self-defense in the District of Columbia.

"Just the other day," Gottlieb notes, "they willingly sacrificed full congressional voting rights because the measure also included full gun rights provisions."

Gottlieb says he's encouraging his members to support the Second Amendment Enforcement Act, and I couldn't agree more. He says it's time to force a juvenile city government to behave. I think it's more appropriate to let Mayor Fenty and Chief Lanier spend some time as guests of a federal correctional facility for their acts. The downside is that Fenty would probably be elected to Congress after his release.

And that's not a cheap shot - the precedent has been established in "the District".

Republished from The Outdoor Wire.