Norton Now Fighting Second Anti-Home Rule Gun Bill (8/2/08)

Norton Now Fighting Not One but Two Bills that Would Preempt Council and Permanently Deprive D.C. of Gun Safety Jurisdiction

August 2, 2008

Washington, DC - Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) said today that a second bill, filed as Congress left town, to keep D.C. elected officials from writing their own gun bill - with 47 conservative Democrats and five Republican co-sponsors - was a transparent attempt to get a D.C. gun bill to the floor because the NRA-inspired discharge petition to compel a vote on a prior bill failed to get the 218 signatures necessary to force House consideration. The discharge petition, to preempt a D.C. Council bill that would comply with the Supreme Court decision overturning D.C. gun laws, has 166 signatures (there are 199 House Republicans), but no Democrats so far, and the petition may be signed only when Congress is in session. By filing their own almost identical bill, written after negotiations with the NRA, these mostly Democratic members hope to relieve election year NRA pressure by getting a Democratic-backed bill to the floor, out of fear that the NRA will run hometown ads against their reelection. The new Democratic bill is virtually the same as the Republican bill that has 185 Republicans and 64 Democrats.

Norton called on Dick Heller and other plaintiffs in the law suit, and pro-gun D.C. residents, to speak out against the unprecedented NRA pressure that has now resulted in two anti-home rule preemptive House bills filed before the D.C. Council has finished writing its bill. "Even residents who believe that D.C. officials will not write the bill they think necessary," she said, should separate themselves from those who seek to treat residents as second class citizens in an unprecedented effort to preempt the D.C. Council by writing a bill federalizing gun safety laws and barring the District from ever changing their own gun laws. Preemptive overriding is especially unnecessary, Norton said, not only because the Council intends to make changes, but also because District gun laws continue to be under the jurisdiction of the federal courts and, in any case, Congress can change any D.C. law at will.

The Congresswoman, who has had meetings with the House Democratic leadership and other Democratic leaders, is in the midst of developing her own strategy to meet the NRA attack head-on in the House. In case the bill clears the House, she already has been in touch with Senators, who helped her stop several House-passed anti-home rule gun bills in the past. However, Norton said, the discharge petition device, unique to the House, must be fought hard, especially because of its implications for further use against the city. If this bill were to get to the Senate floor - which is possible because of trading on bills that often occurs as the session ends - there almost certainly would be 60 votes for passage, according to Senate observers.

The Congresswoman said that she does not doubt the coercive intimidation of the NRA or its capacity to bully and frighten members as an election nears. However, she said, the discharge petition that provoked this crisis became possible only because many Democrats are cosponsors whose seats are not endangered, including two Congressional Black Caucus members, who are on both bills. Many of the 64 Democrats who co-sponsored have safe seats or little competition.

D.C. is uniquely vulnerable, and the NRA is unusually powerful, but Norton predicted that other powerful interests will follow suit by driving similar wedges between conservative and progressive Democrats. She has suggested some preventative steps Democrats might want to take. Republicans increasingly are using wedge issues in the House to exploit the broad political diversity of House Democrats in order to separate progressive from conservative Democratic members.

After getting the decision it wanted, written by the most conservative member of the Supreme Court, Norton said, the NRA has shown it is concerned with much more than D.C. gun laws. "This continuing pressure after NRA has won in court has other purposes, feeding NRA's own agenda and voracious appetite for raising funds at the expense of District citizens in order to intimidate members of Congress," Norton said.

Both NRA bills repeal D.C. gun laws, including the ban on handguns, semiautomatic weapons, and registration requirements, among other provisions. Although the Council was close to summer session when the Supreme Court decision was issued, District officials moved quickly to comply by passing emergency legislation, effective for no more than 90 days, as the city continues to develop new permanent gun laws. The emergency Council bill is a stop gap measure that was all the District could do without hearings. Two days of hearings have been scheduled in September by Councilman Phil Mendelson. The emergency bill showed the city's good faith attempt to be in initial compliance and allow registration to occur over the summer while permanent legislation is being written, Norton said.