Congresswoman Eleanor Norton

Norton Starts Battle Against Dangerous, Anti-Home Rule Gun Bill As It is Reintroduced

February 11, 2011

Washington, DC-The Office of Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) announced today that Representatives Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Mike Ross (D-AR) have reintroduced the National Rifle Association (NRA)-backed D.C. gun bill, the Second Amendment Enforcement Act, that forced Norton to pull the D.C. House Voting Rights Act from the House floor in April 2010.  The Jordan-Ross bill was introduced only two days after Norton was denied the right to testify by Republicans at a House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution hearing on H.R. 3, the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act, about a provision that seeks to prevent D.C. from spending its local taxpayer-raised funds to provide abortions for low-income residents.

"House Republicans revealed themselves to be hypocrites on day one of the new Congress when they stripped our residents of the federal court-approved Committee of the Whole vote," Norton said.  "They won control of the House on the slogans of job creation and reducing the power of the federal government, but they have spent the first month in the majority introducing bills to usurp the local autonomy of the District of Columbia.  They underestimate our residents if they think this city will tolerate autocratic rule from Congress any more than the Jordan and Ross districts would tolerate dictatorship from Congress on local matters."

The District revised its gun laws after the Supreme Court's 2008 Heller decision, and a federal court upheld the constitutionality of the District's new gun laws.  After the NRA gun amendment blocked Norton's voting rights bill last Congress, she was able to keep their stand-alone bill off the floor.   Although the Government Printing Office has not yet published the Jordan-Ross bill, the sponsors' summary indicates that the bill is substantially similar to the Second Amendment Enforcement Act introduced in the 111^th Congress.  The bill not only would wipe out the city's current gun safety laws, it would make the District one of the most permissive gun jurisdictions in the country:

1. Permits the carrying of guns in public. 
2. Repeals D.C.’s ban on large capacity ammunition feeding devices (i.e., magazines that can hold more than 10 rounds).
3. Repeals D.C.’s ban on assault weapons, including .50 caliber rifles.
4. Prohibits residential and commercial property owners from banning tenants from having guns on their property.
5. Bars D.C. from prohibiting guns in District owned or controlled buildings and structures that do not have certain security measures in place, which could include elementary schools and recreation centers, and D.C. cannot prevent private tenants of city owned or controlled buildings and structures from bringing guns into them, regardless of the security measures in place.  
6. Repeals D.C.’s categories of prohibited possessors; for example, a person who was voluntarily committed to a mental institution could buy a gun.
7. Prevents D.C. from making changes to its gun laws in the future.
8. Creates the only exception to federal law by permitting D.C. residents to make handgun purchases in person outside their place of residency, in this case, in Maryland and Virginia.
9. Repeals D.C.’s gun registration requirements.
10. Repeals D.C.’s limitation on the number of handguns that can be purchased per month.
11. Repeals D.C.’s 10-day waiting period to buy handguns or rifles. There would only be a 48-hour waiting period for handguns.
12. Repeals D.C.’s gun training requirements.
13. Repeals D.C.’s design safety standards for handguns.
14. Repeals D.C.’s requirement of microstamping for semiautomatic handguns.
15. Repeals D.C.’s requirement of ballistics testing for handguns.
16. Reduces penalties if a child is injured by a negligently stored gun.