Irish
04-29-10, 00:53
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/local/Senate-bill-targets-D_C_-gun-laws-92262559.html
Senate legislation aims at stripping District gun laws
By: Hayley Peterson
Examiner Staff
April 27, 2010
Sen. John McCain and another U.S. senator on Tuesday introduced a bill that would strip the District of most of its gun laws, one week after the House of Representatives abandoned a D.C. voting bill because similar gun provisions were attached.
McCain, R-Ariz., and Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., have sponsored the Second Amendment Enforcement Act, which would repeal the District's gun registration requirements and allow D.C. residents to purchase ammunition from outside the city. The bill also would restrict the D.C. Council's power to regulate firearms, by putting under federal control the city's laws on semiautomatic weapons and gun storage.
McCain, R-Ariz., and Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., have sponsored the Second Amendment Enforcement Act, which would lift the District's ban on semiautomatic weapons and revoke the mandate that guns be stored unloaded and disassembled. The bill also would repeal registration requirements and allow District residents to purchase ammunition across state borders.
McCain and Tester say the bill would rectify the District's gun laws to comply with a 2008 Supreme Court decision in D.C. v. Heller.
Similar gun provisions killed a House bill aimed at securing a congressional vote for D.C. last week.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., was set to introduce a D.C. voting rights bill last Wednesday with pared-down gun laws attached, but District lawmakers said they wouldn't accept the amendment.
"The majority leader views [the Second Amendment Enforcement Act] as another move to impose policy on the District and ignore the rights of taxpaying citizens," Hoyer press secretary Stephanie Lundberg told the Washington Examiner.
Last year, the Senate passed D.C. voting rights legislation for the first time since 1978, but House leaders again shelved the measure because they couldn't block attached gun control provisions.
"It's a shame that this legislation is even necessary to restore rights that citizens of the District should already have the freedom to exercise," said Chris W. Cox of the National Rifle Association. He said the D.C. Council has "willfully disregarded" the Supreme Court's Heller decision.
"NRA remains committed to restoring the right to self-defense for law-abiding citizens in Washington, D.C., by whatever legal or legislative means necessary," Cox said.
Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District's nonvoting member of Congress, said she is "not surprised" by the new measure.
"This looks exactly like the bill that was going to be attached to the [D.C. Voting Rights Act] last week," she said. "I warned the city that pulling the voting rights bill would not come close to saving D.C.'s gun laws."
Senate legislation aims at stripping District gun laws
By: Hayley Peterson
Examiner Staff
April 27, 2010
Sen. John McCain and another U.S. senator on Tuesday introduced a bill that would strip the District of most of its gun laws, one week after the House of Representatives abandoned a D.C. voting bill because similar gun provisions were attached.
McCain, R-Ariz., and Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., have sponsored the Second Amendment Enforcement Act, which would repeal the District's gun registration requirements and allow D.C. residents to purchase ammunition from outside the city. The bill also would restrict the D.C. Council's power to regulate firearms, by putting under federal control the city's laws on semiautomatic weapons and gun storage.
McCain, R-Ariz., and Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., have sponsored the Second Amendment Enforcement Act, which would lift the District's ban on semiautomatic weapons and revoke the mandate that guns be stored unloaded and disassembled. The bill also would repeal registration requirements and allow District residents to purchase ammunition across state borders.
McCain and Tester say the bill would rectify the District's gun laws to comply with a 2008 Supreme Court decision in D.C. v. Heller.
Similar gun provisions killed a House bill aimed at securing a congressional vote for D.C. last week.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., was set to introduce a D.C. voting rights bill last Wednesday with pared-down gun laws attached, but District lawmakers said they wouldn't accept the amendment.
"The majority leader views [the Second Amendment Enforcement Act] as another move to impose policy on the District and ignore the rights of taxpaying citizens," Hoyer press secretary Stephanie Lundberg told the Washington Examiner.
Last year, the Senate passed D.C. voting rights legislation for the first time since 1978, but House leaders again shelved the measure because they couldn't block attached gun control provisions.
"It's a shame that this legislation is even necessary to restore rights that citizens of the District should already have the freedom to exercise," said Chris W. Cox of the National Rifle Association. He said the D.C. Council has "willfully disregarded" the Supreme Court's Heller decision.
"NRA remains committed to restoring the right to self-defense for law-abiding citizens in Washington, D.C., by whatever legal or legislative means necessary," Cox said.
Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District's nonvoting member of Congress, said she is "not surprised" by the new measure.
"This looks exactly like the bill that was going to be attached to the [D.C. Voting Rights Act] last week," she said. "I warned the city that pulling the voting rights bill would not come close to saving D.C.'s gun laws."