Thursday, March 1, 2012

D.C. City Council Considering Gun Law Reforms

The February 29, 2012 Washington Post actually has a surprisingly fair and calm article about a D.C. City Council committee's decision to forward a bill simplifying the city's gun control regulations:

Mendelson’s bill does not change registration requirements, nor does it roll back laws stating that residents can register only one handgun per month.
But the bill would eliminate the required vision test for applicants — although applicants will still have to provide documentation that they are not legally blind.
Mendelson is also proposing to scrap requirements that applicants complete a five-hour training course, including one hour on a gun range. Instead, the city’s police chief can implement a “minimal” training requirement, such as requiring applicants to watch a safety video.
Although residents would be required to register their weapons with police, they would no longer have to submit their guns to police for ballistic identification before taking them home, according to the legislation.
Some of this, as the article mentions, has been driven by a series of articles by reporter Emily Miller of the Washington Times, who has been jumping through the flaming hoops required to legally purchase a handgun in D.C.

Excuse me, I need to go find an appropriate umbrella for those flying pigs.  Well, maybe not.  As Emily Miller's February 29, 2012 Washington Times article quotes one of the councilcritters:
The liberal council is overwhelmingly anti-gun, but it is feeling the heat from pending court cases and a newly Republican-controlled House of Representatives. Councilman Jack Evans, Ward 2 Democrat, voted for the bill under political pressure. “Council member Mendelson called me last night and said, ‘This is what I believe we have to do in order to accommodate the concerns raised by Congress and, or, the courts,’ Mr. Evans told The Washington Times. “Although none of us like making it easier for someone to have a gun legally, we believe that this is what we have to do.”

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