House Democrats Seek Less-Rigid D.C. Gun Laws

Democratic leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives have agreed to allow a vote next month on a bill that would end local handgun control in the District, making it easier for D.C. residents to acquire pistols, including semiautomatics, while eliminating the strict handgun-storage requirements imposed by the city.

Supporters say the bill has a good chance of passing the House, where pro-gun measures are popular. But it is unclear whether it would succeed in the Senate, where complex rules make it harder to push through legislation.

"This poses a real danger," Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) said, criticizing the legislation as "radical" because it would gut the city's gun-control rules.

"If it passes the House," she said, "you have to hope the Senate doesn't take it up."

The measure, filed Thursday by several conservative Democrats, adds more fuel to the debate over gun control in the nation's capital. After a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision June 26 ended the city's 32-year-old handgun ban, the District replaced the ban with strict handgun limits, which critics say violate the high court's ruling.

The bill would scrap those limits, allowing residents to own handguns without registering them with the D.C. police department, provided they meet federal requirements for firearms ownership.

Besides abolishing the requirement that owners keep their handguns unloaded in their homes and either disassembled or fitted with trigger locks, the measure would repeal the city's prohibition on most magazine-fed semiautomatic handguns -- a ban that has been in effect for decades and was not part of the Supreme Court case.

The legislation also would allow D.C. residents to buy and take delivery of handguns in Virginia and Maryland. Federal law currently prohibits gun buyers from acquiring the weapons in states where they do not reside.

Key negotiators on the bill, including Rep. John D. Dingell (D-Mich.), said in a statement that they have "an agreement with House leadership" for the measure to come to a vote early next month. The legislation was offered as a compromise after House Republicans had maneuvered to get a vote on another measure that would have gone even further, repealing a D.C. law that allows gunmakers to be sued by victims of firearms violence.

Rep. Jason Altmire (D-Pa.), one of the bill's sponsors, said supporters of the measure think that the city has "basically thumbed its nose" at the Supreme Court's 5 to 4 decision by enacting tough limits on handgun ownership. The majority opinion affirmed an individual's right under the Second Amendment to own firearms for self-defense but said that governments may enact reasonable restrictions.

If the legislation fails, Altmire said, "at least we, as people who are accountable to our constituents, can go back home and talk about what we did on the issue."

Forty-eight Democrats have signed on as sponsors of the bill, including Democrats from pro-gun districts who could be vulnerable in November's election. Norton said in a statement that those Democrats "hope to relieve election year pressure by getting a Democratic-backed bill to the floor, out of fear that the [National Rifle Association] will run hometown ads against their reelection."