House Approves Bill Ending DC Gun Laws
By Joseph P. Tartaro
Executive Editor
The House of Representatives overwhelmingly voted on Sept. 29 to approve HR-3193, a measure sponsored by Rep. Mark Souder (R-IN) that would overturn the restrictive gun laws in Washington, DC. The vote was 250-171.
If also approved by the Senate and signed by President Bush, the District of Columbia Personal Protection Act would allow people to keep firearms in their homes and businesses. Semi-automatic rifles and other firearms not prohibited by federal law could be owned legally in the city, and the current ban on private handgun ownership, and the sale and possession of handgun ammunition would be eliminated. Also eliminated would be the requirement that guns kept in the home be stored unloaded under lock and key rendering them useless of home defense.
However, it appears unlikely that the Senate will vote on the measure during the few days remaining in the current session which is expected to end early in October. Much will depend on how long Congress stays in session before election day and whether or not Congress returns to work after the election to address other issues. As earlier reported in Gun Week, Senate sponsors of the companion measure had said they would not press for a vote in remaining days of the current session because of the volume of other legislation under consideration.
If the Senate does not act on the bill in this session, the measure would have to be voted on again in the next Congress which convenes in January. Such an outcome would make the Sept. 29 vote largely symbolic. For the National Rifle Association and other gun rights groups, the roll call vote would provide useful voter guidance in House elections next month.
The vote, however, delivered another blow to the sinking fortunes of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and other anti-gun, anti-self-defense organizations. Unable to advance their agenda since the 9-11 attacks, the anti-gunners saw their prized but useless ban on some semi-automatic firearms and all standard capacity magazines expire at midnight on Sept. 13.
The vote on the Souder bill had sent opponents in a last minute frenzy of activity. The DC City Council unanimously asked Congress not to kill the city’s gun laws.
The 13-member council asked the House leadership to table legislation that would override local gun laws that have been on the books since 1976.
Eleanor Holmes Norton, the district’s nonvoting delegate in the House, called Souder an “incorrigible extremist” who has “provoked a storm of outrage” among DC residents.
“We are not going to Idaho or Indiana . . . to tell those states how to conduct their business,” said Josh Williams, a DC labor leader who participated in a recent news conference denouncing Souder’s legislation.
Souder said he is merely protecting citizens’ Second Amendment right to bear arms.
“My precise argument is that it’s a constitutional violation, and local and state governments don’t have a right to usurp the Constitution,” Souder said.
Souder also argues that DC’s gun bans haven’t been effective because the city has had a persistently high number of murders each year. The district reported 264 murders in 2002, the latest year for which FBI statistics were available.
Robert Peck, president of the Greater Washington Board of Trade, said business groups believe a repeal of the gun bans “will make it even more difficult for us to continue the economic renaissance that we’ve seen in our city.”
Souder, however, argues that if his bill becomes law, DC housing prices potentially will increase.
As the vote neared, two senior House Democrats called on President Bush to declare whether he supports a bill that would repeal virtually all of the District’s gun laws, according to The Washington Post.
In their letter to Bush, Reps. Henry A. Waxman (D-CA) and John Conyers Jr. (D-MI) wrote that if the bill became law, “someone could legally possess a semiautomatic (.50-caliber) sniper rifle and armor piercing ammunition in an apartment overlooking . . . Connecticut Avenue,” a common route for motorcades.
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