BELLEVUE, WA – House passage of a bill that strips away authority from the District of Columbia Council was both proper and expected for a number of reasons, the Second Amendment Foundation said today.
“What did the council expect,” observed SAF founder Alan Gottlieb. “The city has stonewalled, delayed and done everything in its power to make it difficult for citizens to register legal handguns, and the House justifiably voted to put an end to that nonsense. The city council’s vote to amend its own restrictive gun registration requirements was a pitifully transparent attempt to avoid having Congress take over, and it was too little, too late. Now the House has rightfully assumed responsibility for enforcing the Second Amendment in our nation’s capitol city.
“However, gun owners are not so foolish to believe that House Democrats embraced this legislation just because it was the right thing to do,” Gottlieb added. “Many voted for H.R. 6691 to give themselves some pro-gun-rights cover for the upcoming election, and they know it.
“Those Democrats are fully aware that chances of this bill getting through the Senate during this session of Congress are virtually nil,” Gottlieb added, “but this issue gave them a chance to cast a pro-gun vote they can brag about on the campaign trail over the next seven weeks. You can bet your gun collection that Democrat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will block a vote on this measure.”
Gottlieb is co-author of These Dogs Don’t Hunt: The Democrats’ War on Guns, a book that rips the Democratic party’s long history of supporting gun control, on political, socio-economic and racial grounds.
“We are certainly pleased that the House adopted this measure,” Gottlieb stated, “because it is a responsible step toward a sensible resolution of the District’s effort to dance around the Supreme Court ruling. It will come as a pleasant surprise, indeed, if the Senate passes this bill and sends it to President Bush before Congress adjourns. It is time for the District to live up to the Supreme Court ruling, and allow its citizens to rejoin the United States and fully exercise their constitutional right to own firearms for personal protection.”