Just what is it that makes people of a liberal persuasion willing to lay down and die to protect the First Amendment of our Constitution — freedom of speech, press and assembly — but also not have a problem trampling the Second Amendment, which gives people the right to keep and bear arms?
In 1976, the District passed a law requiring a license to own or possess a handgun within city limits. The District then stopped issuing licenses thereby creating a de facto gun ban. As a result, Washington D.C. has one of the highest crime rates in the country.
Anyone who has lived in the District of Columbia knows the truth of the statement that “when guns are outlawed only outlaws will have guns.” The phrase “mugged by reality” was coined to describe the terror of ordinary DC citizens who daily are threatened by vandals carrying guns. Yet it is this very same area that is both plagued by draconian gun laws and out-of-control crime rates.
Northern Virginia has less crime than the across-the-border “can’t-own-a-gun” District, yet it doesn’t restrict gun ownership. If the Second Amendment haters are correct, shouldn’t it be the other way around?
Says the Second Amendment Foundation:
The District of Columbia has been tolerating murder and mayhem on a horrendous scale for three decades in the stubborn defense of an insane ban that statistics show has been a public safety disaster. Singer and Mayor Adrian Fenty can try to spin the history of this travesty any way they want, but the fact remains that the continued defense of this ban represents a flagrant disregard for the personal safety of every law-abiding citizen in the city.
They seem to believe that if no one had a gun, we would form a human hand-holding chain singing “Kum Ba Yah”. Everyone would smile and there would be peace on earth. Nevermind the fact that people who are unarmed are more likely to be a victim of crime than those who are unarmed.
Maybe if all their efforts went into controlling the criminals and not the right of non-criminals to own firearms we would actually see some positive progress in DC?
Constitution, Second Amendment, keep and bear arms, handgun, Washington D.C., District of Columbia, Adrian Fenty
