Winning a round in DC
After four years of trying to hide from the Supreme Court’s Heller decision, Washington realized its gun laws had to change. On Tuesday, the D.C. Council voted unanimously to relax firearm registration requirements. The process to fix the law started just a few weeks after The Washington Times began a series documenting the District’s excessive hurdles to gun ownership.
The proposal will eliminate the five-hour training course requirement, ballistics test, vision test and ammunition restrictions. It also delays for two years the new re-registration and micro-stamping requirements and allows the mayor to act as a gun dealer if there is no other federal firearms licensee in the city.
March 7th, 2012 at 11:41 am
Allows the mayor to “act” as a gun dealer?
So becoming Mayor of DC will have a job requirement of “obtain FFL”?
March 7th, 2012 at 11:44 am
Good for Emily. Still don’t know why anyone would live in DC.
March 7th, 2012 at 11:50 am
Could the DC mayor pass a background check? Jack.
March 7th, 2012 at 11:54 am
“So becoming Mayor of DC will have a job requirement of ‘obtain FFL’?”
If they made it a *condition* for eligibility for the job it sure would change the pool of applicants.
March 7th, 2012 at 11:55 am
This victory is sort of analogous to the repeal of the AWB ban on high capacity (i.e., standard capacity) magazines. The argument against the ban went, “If I am pointing a loaded pistol at you, are you worried about the first bullet that gonna fire from the gun, or the 1 bullet (or 3 or 5 or 6 or 7) that aren’t?
In DC, a few of the most ridiculous, difficult, time consuming and costly registration requirements may be removed. The registration is still there, and that is what the whole argument is about. Until the registration is gone, the problem remains. The registration is the loaded weapon pointed at the gun owners. The last few bits of trash items don’t matter, only the registration requirement.
March 7th, 2012 at 11:59 am
Progress, not remotely perfection.
March 7th, 2012 at 12:53 pm
And they say that National Socialism died with Hitler. HA!
March 7th, 2012 at 12:59 pm
“and allows the mayor to act as a gun dealer if there is no other federal firearms licensee in the city.”
Doesn’t this leave a lot of room for the mayor to be too busy to act in that capacity, thereby completely removing an accessible dealer from residents? Almost a “may issue” vs “shall issue” situation.
March 7th, 2012 at 1:38 pm
Given their past demonstrations of legal knowledge, I’m reasonably certain the DC council just sort of assumes they can make the mayor a gun dealer by fiat.
Might be a good question for an enterprising young DC journalist to ask the actual ATF. Though I suppose ATF has shown a willingness to be creative in regards to lawful gun dealing recently…
March 7th, 2012 at 2:39 pm
I’m sure that the mayor would get the FFL and SOT so that he could do NFA transfers to DC residents. Jack.
March 7th, 2012 at 2:41 pm
Kinda like the Political Elite saying “Okay, we won’t impose Bad Gun Laws on Even Numbered days, but if you mess up on the Odd Numbered…”
March 7th, 2012 at 2:49 pm
I say let the law pass. Then arrest the DC Mayor for selling firearms without an FFL. Let them see how stupid the laws are in the first place. Then again, arresting a DC mayor is far from uncommon isn’t it?
March 7th, 2012 at 2:53 pm
So, a requirement for being mayor of DC would be not being a felon! That should cut down on the amount of candidates.
March 7th, 2012 at 3:05 pm
Now that the subject has come up, it wouldn’t be a bad place to open another CMP outlet. Think I’ll drop a note to Marcy.
March 7th, 2012 at 5:07 pm
@Disavavowed with honor…Hizzoner is already facing a pending federal indictment on bribery and corruption charges. What’s a little gunrunning thrown in the mix? If we live past the impending Mayan Christmas, I forsee homerule being taken away again by the glorious Financial Control Board.
March 7th, 2012 at 6:13 pm
As a DC resident who has been putting off the handgun process..this is big. It shaves a lot of time and money off the process. Thanks Emily
March 7th, 2012 at 7:56 pm
“Could the DC mayor pass a background check? ”
With Eric “My People” Holder in charge? You bet your ass that even crack-head Marion Barry would qualify.
March 7th, 2012 at 9:21 pm
Mikee: that requirement can be easily removed by the US congress.
All they have to do is dissolve the DC government, and appoint a caretaker and a set of new regs.