House Republican Reintroduces Anti-Home-Rule D.C. Gun Bill, Norton Prepares for Fight on Senate Floor to Protect D.C.’s Gun Laws

Washington, D.C. – The Office of Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) announced that Representative Phil Gingrey (R-GA) yesterday reintroduced a resolution (H. RES. 40) expressing the sense of the House that active duty military personnel should be exempt from the gun laws of the District of Columbia, but not those of any other state or locality. The Gingrey resolution was introduced on the same day that Senate Democrats indicated that they intend to allow an open amendment process when they bring post-Newtown gun reform legislation to the Senate floor, increasing the risks to the District's gun safety laws. Last Congress, Ginrgey successfully added his resolution as amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013 on the House floor. Norton, with the help of Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-MI), House Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Adam Smith (D-WA) and the gun safety community, got the provision removed from the version of the bill the president signed into law.

"Even though the Gingrey resolution has no legal effect and even though we were successful in defeating it last Congress," Norton said, "its introduction this early in the new Congress is an indication that Republicans plan to continue to attack D.C.'s gun safety laws at every opportunity. While I applaud Democrats for announcing that the Senate will consider legislation to prevent gun violence, the District of Columbia and its allies will need to prepare for a fight to protect D.C.'s gun safety laws. The D.C. House Voting Rights bill was derailed in 2009 after the Senate agreed to an amendment to the bill, offered by then-Senator John Ensign (R-NV), that would have eliminated the District's gun safety laws, but we will not allow D.C. to be used again to further the National Rifle Association's agenda."

Last Congress, in addition to the Gingrey resolution, Norton defeated two other attacks on the District's gun safety laws. Norton scored a victory when the House Judiciary Committee defeated an amendment that would have allowed out-of-state residents with state-issued concealed carry permits to carry concealed guns in the District. The National Rifle Association-backed D.C. gun bill, which forced Norton to pull the D.C. House Voting Rights Act from the House floor in 2010, was reintroduced in the House and got 174 cosponsors, but it did not come to the floor for a vote.

Published: January 23, 2013