Norton on WUSA Tomorrow Morning on the Gun Amendment on the DC Voting Rights Bill (4/5/09)

Norton on WUSA TV Tomorrow Morning Warns Congress that Killings Like Those This Weekend

Could Come to D.C. Unless the Gun Amendment is Eliminated from the Voting Rights Bill

April 5, 2009

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Following hearings Friday, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) will use her appearance on WUSA TV, channel 9, Monday morning, April 6, 9 a.m., to again alert Congress to the dangers the proposed gun amendment attached to the Senate version of the D.C. House Voting Rights Act carries as the House moves toward passage of the same voting rights bill. Norton offered condolences to the families of the victims of mass shootings this weekend, including three police officers fatally shot Saturday and 13 shot to death Friday. In only the 25 days between March 10 and April 5, 53 people have been killed in mass murders by gunmen. Yet, Members of the House and Senate have not looked at the gun amendment, but have regarded it as just another routine attachment to a local D.C. bill. The bill would eliminate all local gun laws, making the city, including official Washington, more open to gun violence than any of the jurisdictions where the mass killings have occurred in March and April. Because the bill is on a glide to the passage she has worked for throughout her tenure in Congress, Norton is seeking to get the gun amendment removed rather than allow the bill's passage with the dangerous amendment attached. See attached for a summary of the gun amendment dangers.

This is a thumbnail sketch of the provisions that raise the most serious homeland security concerns:

• 1.) Makes a unique exception for the District to become the only U.S. jurisdiction where people can cross state lines to purchase handguns and bring them back -- from Virginia and Maryland -- facilitating gun running by criminals, individuals or gangs intent on breaching homeland security in the National Capital Region, D.C., Maryland and Virginia, which together contains the bulk of the U.S. federal presence and all cabinet agencies.

• 2.) Creates a "gun show loophole," which D.C. is barred from closing, i.e., any person in the District of Columbia, on a cash and carry basis, could purchase weapons from private individuals, as well as at gun shows, in the nation's capital, in Virginia and Maryland. Gun shows could not be prohibited in the nation's capital, putting national security and local security and safety at risk.

• 3.) Unlike many states and most big cities, there would be no gun registration; therefore, it would be very difficult for police to trace guns that might be used in crimes or terrorist incidents.

• 4.) Merely possessing a firearm would be presumed to be legal if you were an employee carrying your firearm to your place of business where guns would be permitted.

• 5.) Permits .50 caliber sniper rifles that can pierce armor plating up to a mile away because the District of Columbia assault weapons ban is wiped out, creating danger for federal officials and D.C. residents alike (see testimony of police chiefs below).

• 6.) Virtually no regulation of guns, only the minimal federal statute, with the result that the nation's capital would be one of the most permissive gun jurisdictions in the nation, making it difficult to protect dignitaries and parades as needed in the post 9-11 era and undoing almost everything the federal government has done to shore up homeland security in the capital since 9-11.

• 7.) Permits a person who is voluntarily committed to a mental institution (most people are voluntarily committed today) to own a gun immediately upon release without any waiting period.

• 8.) No ability of the District to revise its laws for the safety of residents, or others, even to respond to unforeseeable events and even though federal police agencies have heavily relied on the District's strong gun laws to pick up armed people in the District who pose a federal risk.