From NRA-ILA:<\/p>\n
This week, Senators John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Jon. Tester (D-Mont.), and Reps. Travis Childers (D-Miss.) and Rep. Mark Souder (R-Ind.), introduced the \u201cSecond Amendment Enforcement Act.\u201d\u00a0 The Senate and House bills (S. 3265<\/a>, with 14 Senate cosponsors and H.R. 5162<\/a>, with 64 House co-sponsors, respectively) would eliminate several of the District\u2019s most restrictive gun control laws passed in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark 2008 decision in District of Columbia v.<\/em> Heller<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u201cWe believe that residents across this country should be able to exercise their constitutional right to have access to firearms to protect themselves,\u201d Sen. McCain said. Sen. Tester added, \u201cThis legislation sends a clear message: Washington, D.C., isn\u2019t an exception when it comes to law-abiding folks and their Second Amendment rights.\u201d Rep. Childers noted, \u201cToday\u2019s legislation seeks to secure for District residents the rights reinforced by the Supreme Court\u2019s decision in Heller<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n Since the mid-1970s, D.C.\u2019s gun control regimen has been similar to laws imposed in countries where\u2014as Second Amendment author James Madison put it in The Federalist\u2014<\/em>\u201cgovernments are afraid to trust the people with arms.\u201d<\/p>\n The D.C. gun reform bills will move the District\u2019s gun laws away from their European (and worse) model and closer to the mainstream laws that are in place in most of America. The bills would abolish the District\u2019s deliberately difficult and costly firearm registration requirement, its restrictions on carrying a firearm for protection on private property, its post-Heller<\/em> ban on hundreds of types of semi-automatic firearms denigrated as \u201cassault weapons,\u201d its ban on standard defensive magazines that hold more than 10 rounds, and its California-style \u201cmicrostamping\u201d law and handgun “roster” system.<\/p>\n Anticipating continuing efforts by the D.C. Council to suppress gun ownership by preventing dealers from conducting business in the District, the bills also provide for D.C. residents to legally buy handguns from FFLs in Maryland and Virginia, and they prescribe reasonable conditions for the lawful transportation of firearms within the District.<\/p>\n Furthermore, because the city\u2019s elected officials have demonstrated hostility toward the Second Amendment\u2014imposing its \u201cmicrostamping\u201d law, \u201cassault weapon\u201d ban, ban on magazines holding over 10 rounds, and \u201cunsafe handgun\u201d ban (which the city modified after the ban was challenged in court)\u2014the Childers and McCain bills prohibit the city from enacting new laws designed to thwart the exercise of the right to arms.<\/p>\n NRA-ILA Executive Director Chris W. Cox declared NRA\u2019s support for the Childers-Souder and McCain-Tester bills, noting that NRA \u201cremains committed to restoring the right to self-defense for law-abiding citizens in Washington, D.C., by whatever legal or legislative means necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n Not everyone views the new legislation so favorably, however. In a press release<\/a>, D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (D) derided the \u201cnew and more dangerous National Rifle Association gun amendment\u201d (sic) because it would allow the city to regulate, but not prohibit, the carrying of firearms. (In Heller<\/em>, the Supreme Court recognized that the Second Amendment \u201cguarantee[s] the individual right to possess and carry weapons in case of confrontation.\u201d)<\/p>\n Norton repeatedly mischaracterized the potential effect of the bills. For example, she claimed that they would stop the city from prohibiting guns within schools that do not have metal detectors–ignoring the fact that the bill would retain the District’s general ban on carrying firearms outside the home. The city\u2019s mayor, Adrian M. Fenty (D), said that to \u201cpermit more guns in the District would be a major step backward for public safety,\u201d but didn\u2019t explain the basis for his prediction.\u00a0 Nor did he explain how, to date, D.C.\u2019s draconian gun laws have enhanced public safety in D.C.<\/p>\n We encourage all NRA members to contact their U.S. Senators and Representative and ask them to cosponsor this important legislation.\u00a0 You can find contact information for your legislators by using the “Write Your Representatives<\/a>” tool at www.NRAILA.org<\/a>, or you can call your U.S. Senators at (202) 224-3121, and your U.S. Representative at (202) 225-3121.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" From NRA-ILA: This week, Senators John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Jon. Tester (D-Mont.), and Reps. Travis Childers (D-Miss.) and Rep. Mark Souder (R-Ind.), introduced the \u201cSecond Amendment Enforcement Act.\u201d\u00a0 The Senate and House bills (S. 3265, with 14 Senate cosponsors and H.R. 5162, with 64 House co-sponsors, respectively) would eliminate several of the District\u2019s most restrictive […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[577,578,579,576],"class_list":["post-3135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-second-amendment","tag-h-r-5162","tag-john-mccain","tag-jon-tester","tag-s-3265"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.downrange.tv\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.downrange.tv\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.downrange.tv\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.downrange.tv\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.downrange.tv\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.downrange.tv\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3135\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.downrange.tv\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.downrange.tv\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.downrange.tv\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}