The District of Columbia has a fantastic motto. “Taxation Without Representation”. With Republicans in control of Congress, it will be up to them to decide how they want to deal with D.C. city politics as they relate to gun control.
For those unfamiliar, the District of Columbia has arguably the strictest gun laws in the country. There is a process to obtain a concealed carry permit but that permit process is buried under a thick layer of Chesapeake muck.
Multiple court rulings have insisted that the District of Columbia reform their ridiculous restrictions upon law-abiding citizens but city politicians and the chief of police both manage to somehow bury those issues again without addressing them.
In the meantime, our nation’s capitol ranks consistently in the top ten of the most violent, crime-ridden places in America. If you’re a resident of the District of Columbia, you have a 1.2% of becoming the victim of a violent crime.
via WTOP News
That may not sound like a lot until you consider that’s an annual estimate based upon the reported numbers of violent crimes committed and matched against the ratio of incidence of violent crime per 100,000 people.
If those numbers remained consistent, a resident has a 1 in 6 chance of being the victim of a violent crime if he or she lived in that city for ten years. Is that the sort of place you’d feel safe living? I know I wouldn’t. Not with those chances.
So, what recourse does a resident of D.C. have? Well, good luck getting permission from the city to carry a handgun. Despite a federal judge ordering the chief of police to drop the “just cause” determination, the chief of police continues to make the application process unusually cruel, long, and complicated.
SIDENOTE: Despite all that, do not be disheartened and please do consider putting the time in to get a concealed carry permit. Your life is worth it.
Now, the Washington Post is complaining that Republicans in the House and Senate are ready to take aim at the undue restrictions imposed on the citizens of D.C. The newpaper owned by Jeff Bezos (Amazon) who also owns servers operated by the CIA (conflict of interest much?) is now highly critical of the idea that D.C. citizens and visitors would have the right to arm themselves in one of the most violent cities in the country.
“I can’t think of anything more dangerous than allowing people to walk around with assault weapons and high-capacity magazines in the nation’s capital,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said. “This city is always a little bit on edge knowing it’s always at risk. Why raise the anxiety of people who live here by allowing dangerous killing machines to be legally sold and carried on streets?”
The answer is obvious. Only the crooked politicians and the elite are allowed to be protected in D.C. The regular and low-income residents who live and work in the city shouldn’t be allowed to protect themselves. Right?
Well, maybe we need more police. That would be great except police overwhelming don’t appear to like working in D.C. Not only are you dealing with armed criminals completely unafraid to start rolling gun fights through the streets of our nation’s capitol, but there’s a history of police chiefs who use the position to advance themselves into the corporate world — leaving their force hanging in a limbo.
By the by, I feel bad for the NFL if they hired a police chief with one of the most atrocious track records to head up security over players, owners, and managers valued into the billions of dollars in annual revenue.
So, as the Washington Post and the cronies in Washington lament the idea of an average citizen defending himself, it appears that these next congressional sessions may yield some hope of changing course.