LIBERTY FOR THE CITIZENS OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

Friday April 30, 2010

This week, Senators John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Jon. Tester (D-Mont.),
and Reps. Travis Childers (D-Miss.) and Rep. Mark Souder (R-Ind.),
introduced the “Second Amendment Enforcement Act.” The Senate
and House bills (S. 3265, with 14 Senate cosponsors and H.R. 5162,
with 64 House co-sponsors, respectively) would eliminate several of
the District’s most restrictive gun control laws passed in the wake of
the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark 2008 decision in District of Columbia v. Heller.


“We believe that residents across this country should be able to
exercise their constitutional right to have access to firearms to
protect themselves,” Sen. McCain said. Sen. Tester added,
“This legislation sends a clear message: Washington, D.C., isn’t an
exception when it comes to law-abiding folks and their Second Amendment rights.”
Rep. Childers noted, “Today’s legislation seeks to secure for District residents
the rights reinforced by the Supreme Court’s decision in Heller.”


The bills would abolish the District’s deliberately difficult and costly
firearm registration requirement, its restrictions on carrying a firearm
for protection on private property, its post-Heller ban on hundreds of
types of semi-automatic firearms denigrated as “assault weapons,”
its ban on standard defensive magazines that hold more than 10 rounds,
and its California-style “microstamping” law and handgun "roster" system.


Anticipating continuing efforts by the D.C. Council to suppress gun ownership
by preventing dealers from conducting business in the District,
the bills also provide for D.C. residents to legally buy handguns from FFLs
in Maryland and Virginia, and they prescribe reasonable conditions
for the lawful transportation of firearms within the District.


Furthermore, because the city’s elected officials have demonstrated
hostility toward the Second Amendment"imposing its “microstamping” law,
“assault weapon” ban, ban on magazines holding over 10 rounds,
and “unsafe handgun” ban (which the city modified after the ban
was challenged in court)"the Childers and McCain bills prohibit the
city from enacting new laws designed to thwart the exercise of the right to arms.


NRA-ILA Executive Director Chris W. Cox declared NRA’s support for
the Childers-Souder and McCain-Tester bills, noting that NRA
“remains committed to restoring the right to self-defense for citizens
in Washington, D.C., by whatever legal or legislative means necessary.”


Not everyone views the new legislation so favorably, however.
In a press release, D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (D) derided
the “new and more dangerous National Rifle Association gun amendment” (sic)
because it would allow the city to regulate, but not prohibit,
the carrying of firearms. (In Heller, the Supreme Court recognized
that the Second Amendment “guarantee[s] the individual right to
possess and carry weapons in case of confrontation.”)

From the NRA INSTITUTE FOR LEGISLATIVE ACTION