Daily Archives: March 28, 2015

Two high-profile Republicans in Congress, Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.) and Rep. Jim Jordan (Ohio), have introduced legislation that would undo the Districts gun laws, which are among the strictest in the nation.

If embraced by Republican leaders of the House and Senate, the legislation could force a Second Amendment showdown with President Obama just two years after he failed an attempt to win stricter gun control laws nationwide.

For the District, the legislation could amount to the most serious challenge to local governance in years. For three decades, the Districts liberal Democratic leadership prohibited any gun ownership in the city. The Supreme Court struck down that law in 2008.

Rubio, a potential 2016 presidential candidate, said the legislation is necessary to protect a fundamental right that all Americans should have including residents of the nations capital.

In order to achieve the American Dream, people need to be able to live in safe communities and be able to protect themselves, their families and their properties from danger, Rubio said. For years, the District of Columbia has infringed on its residents Second Amendment rights and rendered them vulnerable to criminals who could care less what the gun laws are.

Jordan, the Ohio representative, said the bill would make the District a safer place for law-abiding citizens and restore the original intent of the Second Amendment to our nations capital.

The Districts unique status as a federal district that Congress oversees has long made it a battleground for social policy fights on Capitol Hill. Those battles have flared especially when Republicans have controlled both chambers of Congress, as they do now. Democrats have regularly accused Republicans of using their oversight of the city to impose their ideological will and score points with their own constituents back home.

It should shock no one that Sen. Rubio, who is widely expected to soon announce a run for president, would try to raise his national profile and conservative bona fides, said Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, the Districts nonvoting member of Congress. But they should be shocked to hear that he would try to use our local jurisdiction and laws to violate his own support for the principle of local control. Such bullying is not very presidential.

Rubio isnt the only national Republican to draw accusations of imposing presidential politics on the District. The legislation follows a move last week by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) in the days before he announced his run for the presidency to undo two local D.C. laws pertaining to abortion, birth control and gay rights.

With all of this attention, you would think D.C. was going to have its primary with Iowa and New Hampshire next year, said Michael Czin, communications director for D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D). Czin declined to speculate on whether the law could affect public safety, saying he would not deal in the hypothetical of the proposed law passing Congress.

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Sen. Rubio, Rep. Jordan propose repealing D.C. gun control laws