DESPITE Washington D.C.'s ongoing battle with violent crime, several Republicans in Congress are spearheading a plan to reverse the city's handgun restrictions. This move is not only ill-advised, but blatantly exploits the city's lack of federal representation.
The District has eight times the murder rate of New York City and six times the murder rate of Los Angeles. Last year, there were 198 murders in a city of 554,000 people. Despite the initial shock, the rate is a significant reduction from 15 years ago, when there 474 murders. Throughout the 1990s, the crime rate dwindled significantly. The trend is continuing: 2004 represented an 18 percent decrease in crime from 2003.
Rep. Burton (R-Ind.) is among the strong supporters of the D.C. Personal Protection Act, which, if passed in the Senate, will roll back The District gun laws. He argued that "it's insane for a law-abiding citizen to not be able to protect themselves in the murder capital of the world, of the United States, by having a weapon."
The District has a 29-year-old ban on handguns and semiautomatic weapons. Current District law allows residents to own rifles and shotguns, so long as they are kept in a non-operating condition. Only handguns purchased and registered before Feb. 22, 1977 may be owned by District residents.
Burton and Rep. Souder (R-Ind.) made significant headway towards overturning gun restrictions in The District by passing the D.C. Personal Protection Act, which was added as an amendment to the District's $68 billion federal spending bill. Despite persistent outcry from District residents and representatives, the amendment was added to the spending bill by a vote of 259-161.
In an effort to reassure District residents, Rep. Souder promised that "no machine guns, sawed-off shotguns, AK-47s or Uzis" would become available for legal ownership in the District.
Despite his lame reassurance, the measure has been met with overwhelming outcry and resentment by the residents of The District.
The District City Council supports the gun restrictions unanimously. The laws are also strongly backed by The District's Mayor Anthony Williams, Chief of Police Charles Ramsey and The District's non-voting sole Congressional representative, Eleanor Holmes Norton.
According to the Washington Post, Williams explained "The entire community in the District is working to keep handgun violence down, and this effort led by Republicans in Congress would take us in the wrong direction."
Ramsey and Nortonechoed Williams in a joint statement, calling the measure a "subversion of democracy for the 550,000 District residents who have long battled killings, robberies and assaults common to large cities." Ramsey followed up the statement, citing that the move "would lead to more bloodshed."
The effort to reverse the almost 30-year-old ban on handguns in The District is an example of how The District lack of federal representation exploits District residents by allowing Congress to toy with local laws.
Despite similarly restrictive gun laws, New York City and Chicago are not targets for reform. Congress has no power over city gun laws in the states, unless the laws are in violation of federal statute.
The District's unique status of lacking federal representation enabled Souder and Burton to push their views on gun ownership on the residents of The District and change city laws.
The District's status of "taxation without representation" allows an undue amount of power to the federal government over the city's residents. Congress's overtly protective and paternalistic attitude towards the District is neither fair nor in the best interest of The District's residents.
District residents deserve the representation given to all U.S. citizens, and the freedom to determine issues such as gun control under the pretext that any other state would follow. Representatives from Indiana should not get more say over District gun laws than The District's own "representatives."
Sophia Brumby is a Cavalier Daily columnist. She can be reached at sbrumby@cavalierdaily.com.
Read More
EDITORIAL: Carla Williams deserves her seat at the table
By Editorial Board | YesterdayLooking beyond basketball and football reveals that Virginia Athletics is, in many ways, thriving.
UPADHYAYA: The Great and not-so-Good sides of U.Va.’s 2030 housing plan
By Apal Upadhyaya | 3 days agoInstead of improving the dire state of existing infrastructure, however, the University has shifted attention away from it and chosen to expand.
EDITORIAL: Support low-barrier shelters in Charlottesville
By Editorial Board | 4 days agoInvesting in low-barrier shelters now will pay off in increased stability for the homeless, which will undoubtedly improve the safety of shelters and the community writ large.
