District of Columbia is an open town of yesteryear's, when the local politicians turned up their noses at Congress, the 14th Amendment's guarantee "equal protection of the laws."
Where is the Marshall ?
Lets look at some evidence against D.C.'s gun law.
- In 1976, D. C. Council imposed the multi-faceted Firearms Control Regulations Act; measure prohibits the possession of a handgun that was not registered with city police prior to Sept. 24, 1976, and re-registered by Feb. 5, 1977. Also requires the registration of all privately owned firearms kept in the home be rendered useless for protection by being "unloaded, disassembled, or bound by a trigger…".
- By 1991, D. C.'s homicide rate increased more than 200 percent. By comparison, U.S. rate of 12 percent during the same period. [FBI, Metropolitan Police of D. C.]
- D.C. prohibition on use of firearms for defense against criminals is an anacharism, in face of the Right-to-Carry movement sweeping the Nation.
- D.C.'s prohibition on the use of firearms for defense against criminal attack increases the likelihood that crime victims will be hurt by their attacker. [Gary Kleck, Point Blank, 1991, p. 124]
- U.S. Darptment of Justice has found: 40 percent of felons decided to not to commit one or more particular crimes for fear their potential victims were armed. [Armed and Considered Dangerous: A Survey of Felons and Their Firearms, 1986, p. 155]
- D. C. shouldn't deny citizens the right to defend themselves when it is not legally obligated to defend them. D. C. Court of Appeals ruled that city police is "not generally liable to victims of violent criminal acts…"[Warren v. D.C., 444, A2d 1, 1981]
Congress should clean up "Dodge City" by abolishing the District's Un-American gun law and in their place adopting for the nation's capital a set of laws consistent with Federal laws and the laws of the 50 states.
