The D.C. City Council has imposed a very burdensome system of gun
registration. Only a handful of states have any registration and none
has a system as complicated as that of the District. There is a solution
to this tyranny. Congress can pass H.R. 1399, the "District of Columbia
Personal Protection Act." The bill, which is supported by the NRA and
has 247 co-sponsors, would repeal the D.C. handgun ban and the storage
requirement which prohibits keeping a firearm ready for self-defense in
the home, two of the provisions found to be unconstitutional in the
Heller decision. Moreover, it would repeal the D.C. registration system,
which is burdensome in its own right and serves as a vehicle for even
more restrictions and skewed definitions. H.R. 1399 would restrict the
D.C. Council's authority to impose undue restrictions upon residents'
Second Amendment right. It also would repeal the ban upon semi-automatic
firearms, conforming the District's law to federal legislation. It would
repeal various restrictions on ammunition and the District's "Strict
Liability Act," which allows manufacturers of certain types of guns "to
be held strictly liable in tort, without regard to fault or proof of
defect."
The problem is that time is short in this Congress. There may be enough
time for a discharge petition to bring the bill to the floor of the
House of Representatives. But in the Senate 60 votes are needed to move
anything. The NRA vote count currently stands at 55. The leadership in
both chambers opposes H.R. 1399. The NRA wants it passed while there is
still a President in office who will sign it. Unfortunately, it appears
as if the courts, rather than the legislature, will have the last word
on the D.C. legislation. That is not how it should be.