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http://www.washingtontimes.com/metro/20070510-113203-3883r.htm
Gun laws carry on despite reversal
By Gary Emerling
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
May 11, 2007
Significant gun laws dating back to the 1930s remain in the D.C. Code
despite a recent federal court decision that overturned sections of the
District's 30-year-old ban on handguns.
For example, even if the gun ban is overturned, it will continue to be
against the law to carry a gun outside the home in the District.
Machine guns and sawed-off shotguns will remain illegal, gun sales by
anyone other than a licensed dealer will still be prohibited, drug addicts
and convicted felons will continue to be barred from buying or possessing
guns, and it will still be against the law for unlicensed gun owners to
possess ammunition.
In the first three months of the year, prosecutors in the Office of the
U.S. Attorney for the District filed charges in at least 134 cases related
to those offenses, in which illegal gun or ammunition possession was the
only or primary charge.
Those figures do not include more serious cases such as murder or
assault, in which weapons possession was charged as a secondary offense.
Other city guns laws that would remain unchanged if the ban was repealed
include laws stiffening penalties for committing a crime while armed and for
carrying weapons within "gun-free zones," such as schools, playgrounds and
youth centers.
"The ruling leaves intact important parts of our gun law," said D.C.
Attorney General Linda Singer. "But it also eviscerates important parts."
A March 9 decision by a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C.
Circuit overturned a lower-court decision and revoked city gun regulations
that prohibit most residents from legally registering guns and from keeping
firearms in their homes. It also overturned a law requiring legal firearms
to be stored bound and disassembled.
The full court Tuesday declined to revisit the decision, leaving city
officials with the last resort of appealing the case to the U.S. Supreme
Court if they hope to preserve the ban. Officials have 90 days to ask the
Supreme Court to hear the case, in which time the ban will likely remain
intact.
At a Tuesday press conference protesting the decision, D.C. Mayor Adrian
M. Fenty said officials also may choose to craft new legislation in lieu of
a Supreme Court appeal.
The mayor said the potential legislation could define "exactly how
handguns could be stored in the home and what is still not permitted in the
District of Columbia."
Mr. Fenty has credited the gun restrictions with helping to "decrease
gun violence in the District of Columbia" and D.C. Council member Jim
Graham, Ward 1 Democrat, said officials must "fight Congress and the courts
from opening up the floodgates" of guns in the city.
FBI statistics show that the District's homicide rate was 32.8 per
100,000 residents in 1975, the last full year before the gun ban was passed
by the council.
In 2005, the last full year for which statistics were available, the
rate was 35.4. The rate dropped immediately after the ban was imposed and
skyrocketed in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when gang battles fueled by
crack cocaine and automatic weapons drove homicide levels to record highs.
The homicide rate has leveled off in recent years.
Even if the ban falls, the District would still be subject to federal
laws, which bar certain people from purchasing a firearm and mandates
background checks.
States and jurisdictions often choose to make those federal requirements
more stringent as well, said Michael Campbell, a spokesman for the federal
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
"At a bare minimum, you have to follow the federal firearms laws," Mr.
Campbell said. "That would be no different if the ban went away."
The appeals court specifically declined to address easing the District's
other laws, saying in its decision that "we need not consider the more
difficult issue whether the District can ban the carrying of handguns in
public, or in automobiles."
Carrying a pistol without a license is a felony punishable by five years
in prison for a first offense and 10 years for a second offense.
Council member Phil Mendelson, at-large Democrat and chairman of the
council's Committee on Public Safety and the Judiciary, said the appeals
court's decision will weaken the effectiveness of the laws they left alone.
"By saying 500,000 more people can have guns in their homes, there could
be 500,000 more guns in the District of Columbia," Mr. Mendelson said. "If
you open the floodgates, then every other situation is impacted. In that
way, the effectiveness of these other laws is reduced."
Gun laws carry on despite reversal
By Gary Emerling
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
May 11, 2007
Significant gun laws dating back to the 1930s remain in the D.C. Code
despite a recent federal court decision that overturned sections of the
District's 30-year-old ban on handguns.
For example, even if the gun ban is overturned, it will continue to be
against the law to carry a gun outside the home in the District.
Machine guns and sawed-off shotguns will remain illegal, gun sales by
anyone other than a licensed dealer will still be prohibited, drug addicts
and convicted felons will continue to be barred from buying or possessing
guns, and it will still be against the law for unlicensed gun owners to
possess ammunition.
In the first three months of the year, prosecutors in the Office of the
U.S. Attorney for the District filed charges in at least 134 cases related
to those offenses, in which illegal gun or ammunition possession was the
only or primary charge.
Those figures do not include more serious cases such as murder or
assault, in which weapons possession was charged as a secondary offense.
Other city guns laws that would remain unchanged if the ban was repealed
include laws stiffening penalties for committing a crime while armed and for
carrying weapons within "gun-free zones," such as schools, playgrounds and
youth centers.
"The ruling leaves intact important parts of our gun law," said D.C.
Attorney General Linda Singer. "But it also eviscerates important parts."
A March 9 decision by a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C.
Circuit overturned a lower-court decision and revoked city gun regulations
that prohibit most residents from legally registering guns and from keeping
firearms in their homes. It also overturned a law requiring legal firearms
to be stored bound and disassembled.
The full court Tuesday declined to revisit the decision, leaving city
officials with the last resort of appealing the case to the U.S. Supreme
Court if they hope to preserve the ban. Officials have 90 days to ask the
Supreme Court to hear the case, in which time the ban will likely remain
intact.
At a Tuesday press conference protesting the decision, D.C. Mayor Adrian
M. Fenty said officials also may choose to craft new legislation in lieu of
a Supreme Court appeal.
The mayor said the potential legislation could define "exactly how
handguns could be stored in the home and what is still not permitted in the
District of Columbia."
Mr. Fenty has credited the gun restrictions with helping to "decrease
gun violence in the District of Columbia" and D.C. Council member Jim
Graham, Ward 1 Democrat, said officials must "fight Congress and the courts
from opening up the floodgates" of guns in the city.
FBI statistics show that the District's homicide rate was 32.8 per
100,000 residents in 1975, the last full year before the gun ban was passed
by the council.
In 2005, the last full year for which statistics were available, the
rate was 35.4. The rate dropped immediately after the ban was imposed and
skyrocketed in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when gang battles fueled by
crack cocaine and automatic weapons drove homicide levels to record highs.
The homicide rate has leveled off in recent years.
Even if the ban falls, the District would still be subject to federal
laws, which bar certain people from purchasing a firearm and mandates
background checks.
States and jurisdictions often choose to make those federal requirements
more stringent as well, said Michael Campbell, a spokesman for the federal
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
"At a bare minimum, you have to follow the federal firearms laws," Mr.
Campbell said. "That would be no different if the ban went away."
The appeals court specifically declined to address easing the District's
other laws, saying in its decision that "we need not consider the more
difficult issue whether the District can ban the carrying of handguns in
public, or in automobiles."
Carrying a pistol without a license is a felony punishable by five years
in prison for a first offense and 10 years for a second offense.
Council member Phil Mendelson, at-large Democrat and chairman of the
council's Committee on Public Safety and the Judiciary, said the appeals
court's decision will weaken the effectiveness of the laws they left alone.
"By saying 500,000 more people can have guns in their homes, there could
be 500,000 more guns in the District of Columbia," Mr. Mendelson said. "If
you open the floodgates, then every other situation is impacted. In that
way, the effectiveness of these other laws is reduced."
