Liberal, conservative Dems fight over D.C. gun bill
Liberal and conservative Democrats are squaring off over a D.C. gun bill designed to satisfy the National Rifle Association (NRA). But it’s a fight some say the liberals are doomed to lose, at least in the House. While a bill supported by liberals will likely win a committee vote Wednesday, leadership is clearing a path for the NRA bill to get a floor vote, where it would likely pass, said two sources familiar with the negotiations.
One curiosity of our republican system of government (please note I am talking about our system of government, not a political party) is that the District of Columbia has no voting representation in either the House or the Senate. They have delegates who can take part in debates, but cannot vote.
Eleanor Holmes Norton is the toothless tiger who represents DC in the House. She is antigun, and does not want the NRA-sponsored bill that would compel DC to obey the law as the Supreme Court decreed to get an up-or-down vote in the House of Representatives. She is wailing that because DC is such a "target-rich environment" - her words - more guns should not be allowed in the District. She's afraid someone will pop the President (whoever it is) or some foreign dignitary.
If she were truly representing the people of DC, she'd be a damn sight more concerned with the people who are being terrorized, assaulted and murdered because they are unable to defend themselves, thanks to DC's unconstitutional gun law which the Mayor arrogantly refuses to strike from the books. She and the other antigunners in the House will get to run their mouths tomorrow - and then the bill put together by the NRA and its Republican and Democratic allies, which by the way has 240 co-sponsors, will steamroller right over them.
The city of Washington, DC had the chance to do it nicely; to admit they had had their day in court and lost, and had to abide by the ruling the Supreme Court handed down. They chose to ignore the ruling. Now they have to pay for that.
Pardon me if I feel no sympathy for them or for their nonvoting non-representative, Eleanor Holmes Norton.
News Flash for Eleanor Norton:
The "target rich" environment is due to the citizens being legally unarmed and defenseless against those who would prey upon them and violate their civil rights...including you. Yes, I am counting ordinary citizens as targets because otherwise it presumes that your life, and the lives of other politicians, are more important than theirs.
The politicians and foreign dignitaries that you are so passionate to protect by disarming the ordinary citizens have the means at their disposal to protect themselves thru the use of armed security that is, in some cases, provided at taxpayer expense.
The ordinary citizen does not have this option.
