The DC city government is really in a world-class pout right now over the recent Heller decision. The city has come up with some new regulations thanks to Mayor Fenty and Council Member Phil Mendelson that remind me how ridiculous the progressive wing of the gun-control crowd really is.
There are two proposals that deserve our attention not only because they made me shake my head and read them a couple more times but also because they typify how silly or plain dishonest the gun control crowd really is.
The first bit involves ballsitic testing.
Requires the Metropolitan Police Department to perform ballistic testing on handguns and makes such testing a registration requirement. The Chief of Police will require ballistics tests of any handgun submitted for registration to determine if it is stolen or has been used in a crime.
Okay, so if you want to own a handgun in the District, you have to get a ballistics test on it. Sounds reasonable, right? But elt’s consider a couple things.
First, there is no requirement here for the police department to get your gun back to you in a timely fashion. Do you know how long a ballistic test, and the associated records check, takes to run? I’ll give you a hint – it’s an awfully long time. The DC Police Department didn’t even have automted records for the handguns it had alraedy required to be registered. How many crimes do you think are in whatever automated system the department has? Let’s also toss in the fact that the police department is alraedy swamped with real criminal investigations. They don’t have enough people to investigate the murders on the books right now, much less the property crimes. Your ballistic test is going to fall way down the priority list. They’ll get to it when they get to it. My bet is that your gun is going to be in police hands for a very long time and good luck getting them to tell you when you’ll get it back. In other words, they will deprive you of your handgun for an awfully long time, even though you have broken no law and are attempting to comply with the law in good faith.
Second, who, exactly, do they think is going to be bringing guns in for this test? There’s no way in the world that someone who bought a gun they stole, or bought from some shady guy on the street, is going to be bringing their gun in for this test. No drug dealer or gang-banger, the people who are actually committing the murders in DC, is going to walk into DC POlice HQ and voluntarily hand over their gun and all their personal information. Ain’t. Gonna. Happen.
I’d say the government is being more than a little dishonest about their motivations. If they’re not dishonest, they’re at least clueless about the limitations of their own police department (which is a possibility given the history of the city) or about the basic honesty level of a criminal. But I’ll lean toward the first.
The second bit is, if you can believe it, even worse.
The legislation modifies existing law to clarify that firearms in the home must be stored unloaded and either disassembled secured with a trigger lock, gun safe, or similar device. An exception is made for a firearm while it is being used against reasonably perceived threat of immediate harm to a person.
Let me translate that for you. The only time your gun can be assembled, loaded, and readily available for use against a threat is when the threat has already presented itself and you are in immediate danger. Bet your bottom dollar that the first time someone shoots an intruder, the city’s stance is going to be, “well that intruder may or may not have had a weapon and they weren’t right in front of the homeowner, so there was no threat of immediate harm”. That’s the loophole they’ve written to get completely around Heller. Your gun can not be ready to fire under normal circumstances. Period.
The biggest problem with this is that it specifically violates the Supreme Court decision, and not by a little bit either. Let me quote a bit from the Heller majority decision:
Similarly, the requirement that any lawful firearm in the home be disassembled or bound by a trigger lock makes it impossible for citizens to use arms for the core lawful purpose of self-defense and
is hence unconstitutional.Oopsie. That new regulation is going to be a problem, considering that it does exactly what the Supreme Court said a new regulation could not do.
Right now, the city government is in an extended pout. They don’t like that they no longer have the power they used to. They believe that if things go back to the bad old days when DC residents could actually own handguns freely, the city will turn into an abbatoir. I understand that belief. It doesn’t comport with reality in the least bit, but I understand the impulse behind it. I know very well how badly people want to believe that the police can always protect them from every perceived ill. I know how easy it is for public officials to promise far more than the rightful balance of power between government and the individual can deliver. I know how simple it is to fool the people into believing that a more controlling government is ultimately in their best interests. Totalitarianism of any stripe is a horribly seductive thing and it never, ever begins with jackboots and camps full of undesireables. It always begins with the best intentions and promises of peace and prosperity and fluffy happy government. It also begins with a couple little lies here and there to smooth over the rough edges. That’s what’s happening in DC right now. In order for the DC government to get what it wants, it’s going to have to flex its progressive muscles and take even more power than it already has. But first, it’s going to have to do a little bit of good-intentioned lying to convince you that everything’s okay and that it’s going to do right by you. In the end, though, DC residents will end up prisoners in their own home sagain, just like they were before the Supreme Court gave them their Constitutional right back.
