DC Mayor Fenty on gun rights
I’ve seen some stupid poltical remarks before, but today’s opinion piece in the Washington Post by DC’s new mayor, Adrian Fenty, is probably the most juvenile and faulty writings of any politician – ever. Aside from mistating constitutional precedence, he also mistates the purpose of the US Constitution;
On a related note, the courts also repeatedly recognized that the Second Amendment is meant to constrain the federal government alone. Another longstanding Supreme Court precedent, Presser v. Illinois, establishes establishes that the Second Amendment simply does not apply to state regulation of gun possession and use. The District should have authority just like that of the states, if for no other reason than to avoid the absurd result that the nation’s capital alone would lack the ability to take the steps the local government believes are needed to keep its residents safe.
On it’s face, it sounds almost reasonable – except that I wonder how Mayor Fenty would feel if the same principle were applied to the abortion issue. Since the Constitution only applies to restraining the Federal Government, how about we let the several States decide whether they want to ban abortions or not – without interference from Federal courts.
Or, we could just let the States decide whether or not they want to enforce the 14th Amendment, or, Hell, they can just decide whether they want to fiddle with the First Amendment, for Pete’s sake.
The handgun ban has saved countless lives, but this fundamental part of the District’s public safety laws will be no more if the Supreme Court does not review and overturn this year’s decision by the D.C. Circuit.
I’d give a coupla bucks to see how the Hell Fenty can make such an irresponsible statement. Prove to me that the handgun ban has saved lives. There have been 126 homocides in the District this year as of August 31st (there were four more over the weekend). And the DC cops, according their own statistics at the above link, after thirty years of a handgun ban, still took 1519 guns off the street THIS YEAR ALONE. Your ban isn’t working and only criminals have guns – law-abiding citizens are undefended. Even long-gun ownership is so restrictive that personal protection is impossible. Why do you think the city with the most restrictive handgun laws in the country has the highest murder rate? Stevie Wonder could see the answer from space - the handgun ban isn’t  disarming criminals.
So, Mayor Fenty, it appears that you’re on the side of criminals in this. And for all of the wrong reasons.
