IDIOT alert

I am sorry, I don't usually call people names, but the headline from today's Washington Post regarding Utah Senator Orrin Hatch's desire to loosen gun restricition legislation in Washington D.C. strikes me as uber-absurd and reaks of stupidity and hypocrisy by Hatch, the Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. It also merits some namecalling.

The D.C. Personal Protection Act, introduced Tuesday by Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), would repeal the District's ban on handguns, end strict registration requirements for ammunition and other firearms, and lift prohibitions on the possession or carrying of weapons at homes and workplaces. The legislation also would loosen the District's definition of a machine gun, possession of which is subject to additional sanction. The term now includes many semiautomatic weapons. Although the District's 1976 gun law has been a frequent target of gun rights activists, it has withstood assaults as recently as 1999, when the House of Representatives failed to enact national gun-control legislation that included its repeal. But the involvement of Hatch, a senior Senate Republican leader, and the recent success of congressional candidates supported by gun rights groups provide fresh impetus for a showdown over gun limits in the nation's capital. Hatch said congressional repeal of the District laws was needed to enforce the constitutional right to bear arms. "It is time to restore the rights of law-abiding citizens to protect themselves and to defend their families against murderous predators," said Hatch, whose bill has 18 co-sponsors. "Try to imagine the horror that [a] victim felt when he faced a gun-toting criminal and could not legally reach for a firearm to protect himself." According to U.S. Justice Department statistics, the District's per-capita murder rate hovered between third- and seventh-highest from 1994 to 2001 among cities with more than 100,000 residents. Calling the District the "murder capital of the United States," Hatch said the gun prohibition is "as ineffective and deplorable as it is unconstitutional."

Here are a couple of my issues: First, senator Hatch should spend his time trying to better the State of Utah, instead of meddling in the affairs of DC. Secondly, I doubt the reintroduction of machine guns, semiautomatic guns, or more handguns in the city will help the murder rate in the Nation's Capital. Third, there is a reason the District of Columbia has a ban on handguns, has strict registration requirements for ammunition and other firearms, and has prohibitions on the possession or carrying of weapons at homes and workplaces (these are all items that Hatch has reintroduced in legislation entitled, "The D.C. Personal Protection Act." By the way the legislation also would loosen the District's definition of a machine gun, possession of which is subject to additional sanction. The term now includes many semiautomatic weapons.

Really, what is Senator Hatch thinking? Has his desire to be a singer clouded his judement and ability to reason? It is ironic how all of the DC rep's, the ones that actually live and have a stake in the viability of Washington D.C. are against this.

District officials including Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D), Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D) and council Chairman Linda W. Cropp (D) oppose the legislation. Norton said the Hatch bill launches a second assault on home rule, citing President Bush's plan to introduce a national school voucher pilot program in the District this fall. The Senate Appropriations Committee is scheduled to vote today on a $40 million plan for vouchers and public schools. "The District is being targeted on guns for the same reason that it was targeted on vouchers -- because we are helpless without senators and the full panoply of legal rights to protect ourselves," Norton said, adding that citizens would be placed in the line of fire to placate an interest group. "The only thing that would cause more murder and mayhem in this city is allowing freer access to guns."

Here are more reasons why DC needs some actual representation in Congress!

posted by sajit @ 10:18 AM