D.C. gun rules awaited
City is expected to draft new statute after court decision
"I'd like to sell anything I have," said Metta. But he won't just yet — not until the city draws up new regulations.
The Supreme Court's decision June 26 rebuffed the strictest gun law in the nation.
The National Rifle Association called it "a great moment in American history." But prospective gun buyers and sellers said they remain on hold, awaiting the response of D.C. officials who are scrambling to draft new handgun regulations that comply with the court ruling.
"There's nothing we can do until we know what they will do," Metta said.
Metta, manager of Atlantic Guns in Silver Spring, Md., said his store fielded about 75 calls from D.C. residents after the ruling. Other gun shops outside the city — which has no shops of its own — also received calls. They, too, were turning prospective buyers away.
Writing for a 5-4 majority, Justice Antonin Scalia said, "We hold that the District's ban on handgun possession in the home violates the Second Amendment, as does its prohibition against rendering any lawful firearm in the home operable for the purpose of immediate self-defense."
In 1974, two years before the ban took effect, more than half of all homicides were committed with handguns. But what impact the ban has had on crime has long been debated, particularly after homicides more than doubled during a crack epidemic in the late 1980s and early '90s.
Supporters of the ban lamented the court ruling but vowed to maintain the strictest handgun measures allowed.
"The Supreme Court's decision last week was regrettable; nonetheless, it is the law of the land," D.C. Council member Phil Mendelson said. He introduced legislation Tuesday to repeal the handgun ban and propose new requirements.
Besides banning handguns, D.C. law required that rifles and shotguns be kept unloaded and disassembled, or equipped with trigger locks — restrictions Mendelson's bill would still retain. But, bowing to the high court, he offered a broad exemption for guns kept at home for "immediate self-defense."
Gun rights advocates called the bill's wording too narrow, questioning how someone would interpret an immediate need for protection.
"That's a troublesome approach," said John Snyder, of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms. He accused the city of trying to make it "as difficult as possible for people to defend themselves."
Recent comments
I'm sure DC will draft a regulation that will continue to make...
I'm sure | July 6, 2008 at 8:36 a.m.
