Washington DC Gun Ban A Deadly Failure

by
Larry Pratt

The official website of the Metropolitan Police Department of
Washington DC says, among other things, that the MPD “protects
District residents from crime, fear of crime, and general disorder
and establishes trust and respect within the community.” Why turn to
the Comedy Channel when you can get lines like this for free?

How bad is crime in our Nation’s capital? It’s so bad that even the
far-left Washington Post has repeatedly complained about it. In a
recent editorial (1/11/03), the Post says: “The District of Columbia
closed out 2002 with a record of violence that should have city
leaders and residents worried sick… the District racked up 262
killings last year, the highest death toll in five years.”

In another editorial (1/25/03), the Post says the Mayor of
Washington DC, its Police Chief and other DC leaders “are badly
misreading the mood of the city if they think there isn’t general
anxiety about the level of crime in the District… last year’s 12
percent increase in homicides and the current pace of murders, which
is nearly on par with last year’s, are sufficient reason for rising
public concern.”

And in his column in the Post (3/01/03) — titled “What About The
War At Home?” — Colbert I. King, writing about the “terror” being
experienced by residents of Washington DC, says: “Homicides are up
again this year. Broad-daylight and nighttime horrors — callous
shootings, murderers are running free — occur with such frequency
and so often without consequence that some people are no longer
inclined to come forward.”

So, what does the Post say is the cause of this rampant violent
crime problem? Well, we’re told, editorially (1/11/03), that:
“Experts are still trying to sort out the reasons.” But, “clearly
the prevalence of handguns — and people willing to use them — has
a great deal to do with it.”

Hmmmmm. Interesting. Because, in so many words, the ultra-liberal
Washington Post is now admitting, in effect, that what’s being
proved, with a vengeance, in Washington DC, is — that when guns are
outlawed, only outlaws will have guns!

But, of course, the Post doesn’t get it. In an editorial (8/5/02),
the Post says: “We believe in strong gun laws.” Well, the District
of Columbia, for more than 25 years, has had “strong gun laws” which
make it, de facto, impossible for any of the good guys to keep and
bear arms for self-defense. The result? Re-read the previously
mentioned excerpts from Post editorials and that King column.

The plain, obvious truth is that the Washington DC anti-self defense
laws have been a dangerous flop as far as curbing crimes committed
by people with guns. And — God bless him — at least one DC cop was
honest enough years ago to admit this. An editorial in the
Washington Times (3/27/96) quotes Lt. Lowell Duckett, president of
the Black Police Caucus and a special assistant to Washington DC’s
Chief of Police, as telling a group of citizens they were right to
arm themselves:

“Gun control has not worked in DC. The only people who have guns are
criminals. We have the strictest gun laws in the nation and one of
the highest murder rates. It’s quicker to pull your Smith and Wesson
than to dial 911 if you’re being robbed.”

Even the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (BATF) –
unwittingly, to be sure — has admitted that gun-control in
Washington DC has failed. On an “Operation Ceasefire” web page, the
ATF says, in part: “The District of Columbia has the strictest set
of local firearms laws in the country…. And yet, even by the most
conservative estimates, thousands of illegal firearms continue to be
present in the District every day, and firearms-related violence
exacts a terrible and continuing toll on the lives of the people who
live and work in the city.”

According to data posted on the website of the Hamilton Fish
Institute, in 1997, in the District of Columbia, even 10.6 percent
of high school students carried a gun somewhere in Washington DC
during the previous 30 days.

But, there’s some good news about gun control in the District of
Columbia and I’ll be reporting on it in my next few columns. Despite
the fact that the gun-grabbers have thus far succeeded in disarming
private citizens in Washington DC, some of these citizens are
fighting back and asserting their Constitutionally-protected right
to keep and bear arms. I’ll tell you about several DC residents who
have gone to court to challenge the city’s gun-ban. And I’ll
introduce you to one courageous lady on the DC Taxicab Commission
who is working hard to make it legal for cabbies to be armed for
self-defense.

In addition, in my next few columns, I’ll be naming names and
exposing the arguments of those in Washington DC, and their allies,
who want to continue the DC gun-ban even though this subjects
citizens to murder and a variety of other violent crimes.

There may be hope, even in Washington.