Emily Miller of the Washington Times has been on a quest for months: get a handgun in Washington D.C. The process has been long, tiring, frustrating and expensive. Luckily, she has finally received her right to keep arms in the District. She has chronicled her "adventures" and often appears on NRA News' Cam and Company radio show to discuss her progress. Now, Fox News' Shannon Bream has gotten a hold of the story and it turns out, not only is it extremely difficult to get a handgun in Washington D.C., but also in Chicago despite Supreme Court cases overturning handgun bans years ago.
After months of aggravation, hundreds of dollars in fees, countless hours jumping over hurdles, I am now a gun owner and finally exercising my second amendment right to keep arms (bearing arms is still illegal in the nation’s capital).
But not only has Emily done herself a huge service by getting her gun, she has also forced change in Washington D.C. gun control laws as well.
When I first started the “Emily Gets Her Gun” series, I thought I would be waiting in long lines and filling out lots of paperwork. I never could have imagined that the D.C. gun laws made it so unearthly difficult to get a legal handgun. However, I also never could have believed that this newspaper series would encourage change in Washington's gun laws.
Meanwhile, violent crime in Washington D.C. is on the rise.
Violent crime so far this year in the District has spiked sharply — a 40 percent increase that includes twice as many robberies at gunpoint than at this time last year.
Across the city, all police districts are reporting increases in violent crime, and all but one have had double-digit percentage increases, according to internal Metropolitan Police Department documents. The documents contained preliminary crime data for the city as of Thursday.