Norton: House To Vote To Repeal All D.C. Gun Laws

The Delegate for the District of Columbia says the U.S. House of Representatives will soon schedule a vote to repeal all D.C. gun laws and that the bill has enough cosponsors to pass.

D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes NortonHowever, Norton said she believes the bill has a decent chance of failing in the Senate.

This is a good place to start rolling back gun laws, especially if lawmakers think they have a chance at getting it through both House and Senate fairly soon. The House should be easy. The Senate is harder. Most likely it will have to wait until after the November elections in any case.

Even so, we should not concentrate on this to the exclusion of other efforts. Let the House pass it first, and contact your Senators about it if it passes the House. Meanwhile, tbink about which of the other gun control laws makes a good target for repeal.

Personally, I think the 1986 ban on new machine guns in the civilian market is a good start. Other arguments can be made, like the 1968 law, or the NICS background check. But we should focus on exploiting the tactical problem the news media has created for themselves: their attempts to force a renewal of the assault weapons ban focused on the misconception that the bill banned machine guns. We all know that isn't so, but the average man on the street probably doesn't.

So if we push to make machine guns legal for manufacture again, NOW, while the arguments are fresh in the minds of the populace... then the news media will be forced to respond with "If this bill passes we'll see machine guns on the streets!"

Except that they said that about the AWB, too. Not only has the AWB so far not resulted in mass slaughter (nor is it likely to), the public will be face to face with the fact that the news media lied loudly, repeatedly, and knowingly about the AWB and what firearms were covered by it. That's the tactical reason to push for a repeal of that law: it damages the credibility of one of our major opponents even if we fail.

So let is be known: as far as I am concerned, the 1986 new-machinegun ban is next on the list. Who's with me?