having the right to own firearms for self protection.
With good reason. Crime might actually drop.
The Supreme Court's decision last summer to strike down the District's unconstitutional ban on handguns affirmed what many of us already knew -- that the Framers guaranteed all Americans an individual right to bear arms. After that decision, the D.C. government repeatedly demonstrated that it intended to do as much as possible to defy the ruling. For example, the District first claimed that city residents could exercise their constitutional right to self-defense, but only as long as their firearms were kept unloaded and disabled until the moment they confronted an attacker. Subsequent city actions have not been much better.
The District imposed a number of restrictions, including burdensome registration processes and reporting requirements. It required parental consent for legal adults old enough to enlist in the military and carry weapons. The city also banned many firearms, including some handguns, which the justices noted are effective for self-defense. All of this serves only to frustrate and discourage D.C. residents from exercising their legal rights to bear arms.
If strict gun control worked, then the District -- which had long been home to the nation's most restrictive gun control measures -- would be the safest place in the country. But gun violence in the city was consistently among the highest in the nation throughout the 30 years that the city banned handguns. The reason is obvious: A gun control law will not dissuade violent criminals from killing or robbing with guns. Criminals use illegal guns purchased on the black market. Washington's police officers are on the front lines of the battle against violent crime, and they know, as the Fraternal Order of Police recently stated, that the handgun ban was "a miserable failure by any estimation." They also know that many city officials are devoted to the gun ban because it provides political cover for the District's dismal crime numbers. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/12/AR2009031202998.html?hpid=opinionsbox1 welcome to DU