Senators seek lift of D.C. handgun ban
Cox News Service
Friday, May 20, 2005
WASHINGTON — Seeking to bring a bit of the Old West to the nation's capital, both Texas senators began working Thursday to lift a three-decade ban on handguns in the District of Columbia.
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, said Washington's gun ban violates the Constitution and renders residents "utterly defenseless" in a violent city — a situation she would end despite being hundreds of miles removed from home-state concerns.
"It's just simply illogical to say that only the people who would ignore those laws can have access to guns while law-abiding citizens cannot," said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas and a co-sponsor of legislation to decriminalize handguns that Hutchison filed Thursday.
If successful, both expect to keep firearms in their Washington homes — Hutchison the .357 Magnum that once resided at her bedside, Cornyn the bird-hunting shotguns he keeps with his Virginia brother-in-law.
But Washington Mayor Anthony Williams, unhappy at the outside interference, delivered a scorching condemnation.
"I am incensed by any congressional proposal that uses district residents as pawns. I am incensed by any proposal that assaults home rule," Williams said. "And I am incensed by any proposal that is an insult to the memory of the people who have died in this city due to gun violence — in particular, the three children who have died from gun violence this year."
Though her nearest voter is 1,100 miles away, Hutchison said she got involved because it is the constitutional duty of Congress to oversee and protect Washington and its residents. She said the gun ban violates the Second Amendment, which gun advocates say preserves the right to keep and bear personal firearms. And she said it is a matter of safety.
"Every woman in the District of Columbia should have the ability to protect themselves in the home, particularly if they're alone most of the time," Hutchison said at a news conference with Cornyn and Sen. George Allen, R-Va.
Hutchison is contemplating a 2006 primary challenge against Gov. Rick Perry, and the National Rifle Association carries great weight among Texas Republican voters. The NRA gave Perry an "A" rating in his last election — the same "solidly pro-gun" grade it bestowed upon Hutchison.
"The National Rifle Association commends Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison for her leadership on this issue, as well as the other co-sponsors of this important legislation," said Chris Cox, chief lobbyist for the NRA. "There is a reason why D.C. has the highest crime rates in America — criminals know that law-abiding citizens are defenseless against them."
Hutchison co-sponsored a similar bill in 2003 that was filed by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah.
Washington bans all handguns not registered before 1977. A shotgun or rifle may be kept in a business to protect the cash register, but if kept at home, the same weapons must be disassembled or locked away unloaded.
Hutchison's bill, with 28 co-sponsors by late afternoon, would allow handguns, rifles and shotguns to be kept loaded in homes and places of business. It would not change city restrictions on carrying concealed weapons and would apply only to residents; Virginia and Maryland residents still could not bring guns into Washington.
A similar bill in the House has 123 co-sponsors, with Reps. Michael McCaul, R-Austin; Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo; and Michael Conaway, R-Midland, among the 15 Texas Republicans and four Democrats who signed onto the legislation.
Washington's mayor said police have confiscated more than 1,000 guns so far this year, part of a campaign that produced back-to-back declines in the murder rate — 17 percent last year, 20 percent the previous year.
"Like the other 50 states, the district knows what firearm regulations work best for its residents," Williams said.
But in the 15 years after Washington banned guns in 1976, the senators said, Washington's homicide rate jumped 200 percent while the national rate rose 12 percent.
"It's obvious this experiment in gun control has failed in the District of Columbia," Cornyn said.
In addition, Hutchison said, while the murder rate fell in the five years before the gun ban — from 37 to 27 murders per 100,000 people. "In the five years after the ban went into effect, the murder rate rose back up to 35. Violent crime and robberies also rose . . . much larger than any changes in Maryland and Virginia," she said.
"Law-abiding residents of D.C. ought to have the right to protect themselves and their families on their property," Hutchison said.
Chuck Lindell writes for the Austin American-Statesman. E-mail: clindell@coxnews.com
