Norton's Bill Seeks to Preempt Anti-Home Rule Gun Bill (9/4/08)

Norton Bill Seeks to Preempt Anti-Home Rule Gun Bill

September 4, 2008

WASHINGTON, DC - The Office of Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton today announced that the Congresswoman will seek to seize the initiative from the 47 conservative Democratic members of Congress who, with five Republicans, have introduced a bill, under National Rifle Association (NRA) pressure, to deny the District of Columbia all jurisdiction over local gun legislation. The members introduced the bill as Congress left town for August recess, but upon its return next week, Norton, with the chair of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Henry Waxman, will introduce her own bill. A hearing, scheduled on Tuesday, September 9, will feature testimony from D.C. Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier and other law enforcement experts.

Norton said, "We're not going to be put on the defensive in vindicating the right of the D.C. City Council to finish the process of writing its own new gun laws, as the Supreme Court has mandated. Overturning D.C. laws is always unacceptable, but interrupting the legislative process while it is ongoing is intolerable."

Norton worked hard against a discharge petition that would have brought to the floor H.R. 1399, which, much like the current Democratic bill, deprives the District of jurisdiction over gun matters altogether. That petition, with 199 Republicans and no Democrats, failed to get the 218 signatures necessary to discharge H.R. 1399, but the NRA continued to bring pressure and found 47 conservative Democrats - mostly new and vulnerable to NRA ads designed to threaten their re-election. Both bills repeal D.C. gun laws, including the ban on handguns, semiautomatic weapons, and registration requirements, among other provisions.

"The NRA got the decision it wanted from the Supreme Court, but now it is taking the absurd step of trying to eliminate the authority of the only jurisdiction that can competently write gun laws for Washington, D.C.," Norton said. "As their dangerous bills demonstrate, members of Congress are altogether lacking in knowledge of what it takes to protect a federal city which has 600,000 residents." She said that the District acted responsibly and quickly by putting in place a consensus temporary measure to allow gun registration to occur over the summer, and some members of Congress are using this stop-gap provision against the city to "bludgeon D.C. out of its jurisdiction." Before the D.C. Council adjourned for its summer recess, the chairman of the Council Committee on the Public Safety and Judiciary, Phil Mendelson, had already planned several hearings beginning Sept. 18. In addition, Norton has learned of a number of changes that members of the Council want to make. If the District errs, she said, there will be ample ways to adjust its law. "The unprecedented action of stopping a local jurisdiction in the midst of writing a bill and depriving the city of the right to hold hearings is beyond the pale and serves no legitimate purpose for anyone except the NRA. Its bill must be defeated," Norton said.