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Bullet Points: The People Debate Fate Of Gun Ban
Gun proponent Sandra Seegars lives in Ward 8, a hot spot for gun violence.
(By Marvin Joseph -- The Washington Post)
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"But what about your constitutional rights?" Seegars says. "Everybody else in this country can buy guns except us. What makes you think the people who live in D.C. can't handle having guns? You think just because we have a gun, we would shoot people for no reason?"
Martin: "No."
"So why do you think we are so stupid, we would shoot people for no reason?"
Martin: "I just think people will take it too far."
Seegars: "They are taking it too far right now."
"Tyranny is the exercise of some power over a man, which is not warranted by law, or necessary for the public safety," the Federalist Noah Webster wrote. "A people can never be deprived of their liberties, while they retain, in their own hands, a power sufficient to any other power in the state."
Some numbers regarding tyranny: According to the Metropolitan Police Department, in 2005, 79 percent of D.C. homicides were committed by firearm; 11 percent by knife; 6 percent, blunt object; 1 percent by hands, fists, feet; 2 percent used "other"; and 1 percent was "unknown."
There is always an "other" and an "unknown." The police report goes further: "The overwhelming majority of homicide victims continue to be African-American males; black females represent the second largest group."
And: "More than one-quarter of recovered firearms were 9mm pistols, while 18 percent were .38s or .357s." Most firearms recovered in the District were traced "overwhelmingly to the two surrounding states, Maryland, Virginia, accounting for 43 percent of the total successful traces." In 2004, 119 juveniles were arrested for carrying pistols without a license. In 2005, that figure went up to 165.
At the D.C. Council hearing last week on the confirmation of Cathy Lanier as police chief, a parade of regular people told the panel what was happening in their neighborhoods. "Citizens with proper training should be allowed to have handguns," Joyce Saucier said.
"I do not support gun control, because it's been a disaster," said the Rev. Douglas Moore, who says he is a black member of the NRA. "The liberals have the illusion that you can take away all the people's guns and everything would be all right. I believe in the Constitution. We never had any police brutality in Hickory, North Carolina, because everybody had guns. One day a police officer slapped my uncle, and my grandfather came out with a shotgun and said, 'I'll blow your goddamn head off.' And my grandfather was a Methodist preacher."
Moore, a former D.C. Council member, said he was the only original council member to vote against the gun ban. He has come out this day to praise the ruling that overturned it. "Everybody in my family has a gun. The police aren't responsible for your protection. You have to protect yourself."
