Congressional Republicans support ending D.C. gun restrictions

This is not original reporting. All information has been compiled from The Washington Post articles "Gunning for the District," "D.C. Gun Bill May Be Linked to Budget" and "House GOP Proposes to Repeal D.C. Gun Bans."

Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate have proposed legislation eliminating nearly all of the long-standing firearm restrictions in the District of Columbia, home to one of the country's most stringent gun bans, according to The Washington Post.

The House bill, proposed by Rep. Mark Edward Souder (R-Indiana), would repeal the handgun ban in D.C.; end registration requirements on firearms and ammunition; lift the prohibition of semiautomatic weapons; and decriminalize possession of unregistered firearms or carrying a handgun in one's home or workplace. The legislation, entitled the "D.C. Personal Protection Act," has 228 Democratic and Republican co-sponsors, a majority in the 435-member House. Souder said House GOP leaders have promised a vote by the Nov. 2 general election, according to The Washington Post.

Sen. Larry E. Craig (R-Idaho) introduced a similar bill of the same name in the Senate. It has 34 co-sponsors, including Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah).

Both bills also bar the District's mayor and city council from enacting gun restrictions. Despite this provision, Souder maintains that his bill is not an infringement on the District's self-governing power, but rather is based on the Second Amendment's gun rights guarantee.

The House bill is likely to mobilize the GOP gun-rights base and put pressure on rural Democrats and moderate Republicans to take a stand on the controversial issue in a hotly-contested election year. Political analysts on both sides of the debate do not believe the Senate bill will pass; in March, a majority of Senators voted for two high-profile gun control measures.

Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) argued that the elimination of firearms restrictions will add to the flood of lethal firearms coming into the city and will lead to an increased level of violence. "Republicans are seeking to allow the introduction even of military-style assault weapons into the nation's capital," she said, "first by allowing the nationwide ban to expire and now by leaving this city wide-open to the use and sale of guns." Thirteen children have been killed by gunfire in the District this year, Norton added.

Souder disagreed with Norton's assessment of D.C. gun violence. The city's homicide rate increased 200 percent from 1976 to 2001, while the national rate grew only 12 percent, he said, according to The Washington Post.. "No one can argue this law's effectiveness. For the fourteenth time in 15 years, they have the murder capital of the world title," he said.