1976 Law Is Just One in D.C.'s Maze Of Gun Rules

In a city with one of the strictest gun control laws in the nation, perhaps no one understands the controversial statute in more detail than D.C. police Lt. Jon Shelton. As the officer in charge of firearms registration, he is the answer man.

Ask what makes a rifle legal or illegal, and he'll talk about muzzle lengths, ammunition capacity and the difference between bolt action and semiautomatic. What types of handguns are security guards permitted to carry? Shelton can cite a half-dozen local and federal laws and regulations, quoting them from memory, and explain why some guards are allowed more firepower than others, depending on whom they work for.

So, simple question:

As the city prepares to defend its 1976 gun law before the U.S. Supreme Court next month, seeking to overturn a lower court ruling that declared the tough restrictions unconstitutional, how many people in the District legally own handguns, rifles or shotguns?

Shelton paused. He grinned. He shook his head.

"That we don't know."

Because the city's "handgun ban" does not ban handguns entirely, and because the statute outlaws only certain kinds of rifles and shotguns, a huge number of D.C. residents legally possess firearms.

As of this month, 66,019 guns of various types were registered with Shelton's office. But because the city does not require registrations to be renewed, it's possible that a lot of those weapons, registered years ago, are no longer here.

"The best we can say is, even with the law in effect, there are thousands and thousands of legal firearms in the District of Columbia," Shelton said.

Opponents of the gun law, who have asked the Supreme Court to uphold the lower court ruling against the statute, argue that the restrictions not only are unconstitutional, but have created a tangled regulatory system that has not made the city safer.

Shelton, who has been overseeing firearms records for 14 years, said he has no idea why D.C. Council members did not require periodic re-registration of guns when they passed the restrictions three decades ago. If they had done so, the police department might have a better idea of how many legal guns are in the District.

"The only way to find that out," Shelton said, "would be for us to take all these registrations and go out and knock on every door and see who's still here."