Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Line Right Up and Stick Your Neck on this Block

D.C. police will start the gun registration process at 7 a.m. tomorrow...An officer from the gun unit will meet the applicant at the door and take temporary possession of the gun to ensure safety at headquarters.
But of course. It's only safe if they have it.

And, again of course, if you have a semiautomatic, you're screwed. After all (he asked tongue-in-cheek), wasn't there a "common use" escape hatch in the majority opinion?

The idea of forcing citizens to take a test to exercise a right smacks of a Jim Crow-era story I once heard about blacks trying to register to vote. The sheriff had a jar full of beans, and the test for eligibility was to guess how many were in the jar.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

They might as well leave them there. Registration is govspeak for "to be held until called for."
Does the District really have the government it deserves?

Anonymous said...

Did I read correctly that they also keep the weapon for 14 DAYS to perform ballistics testing?

I suppose unreasonable search & seizure doesn't apply to weapons willingly handed over to them...

Anonymous said...

ABOUT 14 days. Plus another week or so, depending on how busy the FBI is.

I imagine home invasions are going to spike for the next 180 days, the period of the amnesty and registration "opportunity." REALLY law-abiding people will be letting the cops hold their new guns, and those who are now more afraid of the cops than the criminals will park their already-owned revolvers for the term of the investigation. What will happen to the semi-autos that are in non-criminal hands yet still prohibited? Put in the trash one piece per week?
We won't survive many "victories" like this one.

jon said...

omelet to eggs: break yo'self.

it gets worse before it gets better.

David Codrea said...

As I read this, they tag and do the ballistics test while-u-wait, then return the gun with paperwork showing you are in process for registration. I don't read this to say they keep the gun for 14 days.

Am I wrong?

Anonymous said...

You're right, David. I sped through the article, angrily. Thank you for pointing out the added insult of ballistic sample-taking.

chris horton said...

only the blue button lovers will happily show up for the "racket registration."

Probably smiling as well.....

jdege said...

DC's proposed gun law says "There would be an exception for guns used against the 'reasonably perceived threat of immediate harm.'"

SCOTUS says DC "must
issue him a license to carry it in the home".

Sounds to me like there's another lawsuit brewing.

Anonymous said...

Quick! The DC mayor and legislature are breaking the law! Arrest them!

W W Woodward said...

temporary possession?

Sounds like "reasonable" regulations.

I wonder if any semi-auto [machine gun] handguns or rifles will ever be returned to the owners? "Sheep to the slaughter."

DC has no intention of complying with the Heller decision. The council is merely loopholing its way around the SCOTUS opinion. Does the Supreme Court have a procedure to find DC's Mayor, Council members, attorney General, and Chief of Police in contempt of court or are SCOTUS decisions "living documents" that can be interpreted to mean something different from what they meant last week?

The criminal element will ignore the new regulations just like they did the original ordinances that prompted the Heller case in the first place. The only people who will attempt to comply with the new ordinances will be the same law abiding citizens who were penalized by the original draconian regulations.