By Nikita Stewart and Michael Birnbaum
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, July 3, 2008

A D.C. Council hearing on the Supreme Court's historic rejection of the 32-year-old District handgun ban drew relatively few witnesses yesterday but generated plenty of questions about what it means and how the city will comply with it.

How does a trigger lock work? Does it take three seconds to prepare a gun to fire or 30 minutes? And what is the definition of "immediate self-defense"?

The high court ruled, 5 to 4, that requiring gun owners to keep their weapons unloaded and disassembled or disabled by a trigger lock violates the Second Amendment because a firearm is not at the ready for immediate self-defense.

Council member Phil Mendelson (D-At Large) has proposed legislation that would essentially keep the D.C. law but insert a broad "exception" for gun owners who keep their firearms at home for "immediate self-defense." It also would repeal the handgun ban.

The council probably will not vote on the bill until fall, Mendelson said. But Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) is expected to offer an emergency measure July 15, at the last legislative meeting before the council's summer recess, that would put the city in compliance.

But some witnesses said yesterday that the city would still be violating the Constitution if it implemented the "exception" and kept a ban on semiautomatic weapons. Other witnesses disagreed.

It was a relatively short four-hour hearing, with about 20 witnesses and a sparse audience, given the issues of gun control and gun violence in the District and the national debate prompted by last week's ruling.

Ricardo Royal, a firearms educator from Edgewater, offered to train council members in handling a gun so they would have firsthand knowledge about it, an offer declined in the past.

"I am here as Ricardo, the gun-safety man," he told the three members at the Public Safety and Judiciary Committee hearing. "A training program that includes mandatory handling exercises and a section on the specifics of the D.C. law would be a good start."

When questioned by council member Mary M. Cheh (D-Ward 3), he recommended 10 hours of training.

Cheh asked whether there were "trigger locks that can be disengaged in three seconds." Royal and other gun rights witnesses said that would be impossible.

Police Lt. Jon Shelton testified that lawyer Walter E. Dellinger III, who argued the city's case before the Supreme Court, was provided a trigger lock with a number code. "He was able to pull it off in a matter of a second or two," Shelton said.

Shelton testified alongside Assistant Police Chief Peter Newsham, who stepped in for Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier, who was attending the wake of a Prince George's County officer. Newsham said the D.C. police department is drafting emergency regulations to address specifics about the registration of handguns, including an amnesty program for current owners of illegal handguns.

Mendelson had been upset about the absence of anyone from the city attorney general's office at the meeting. Interim Attorney General Peter Nickles sent Mendelson a letter requesting that the council delay action until the administration can draft regulations and legislation to be considered at the July 15 session.

The most fiery speeches came from two District residents on opposite sides: community activist Absalom Jordan, a member of the National Rifle Association, and Ronald L. Moten, an ex-offender and co-founder of the anti-violence group Peaceoholics.

Moten recalled getting guns from Virginia and Maryland as a youth and urged the council to institute a 20-year sentence for dealers who sell firearms to minors. He also said semiautomatic weapons should remain banned.

Jordan said, "I've waited 32 years for my constitutional rights to be validated."

He said he worked as a council aide in the 1970s and wrote gun registration legislation that was never put on the table. "He threw it out the window," Jordan said, referring to then-council Chairman David A. Clarke, who shepherded the city's law.

Josh Horwitz, executive director of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, also included Clarke in his testimony, saying he was probably "looking down on us with a very sad face today."