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a gun ban that misfired from the WSJ
djh860
Member Posts: 3,232 ✭✭✭
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It would be an effective argument and might make some folks on the fence to realize this gun control measure might not be the answer. Maybe make some Politicians take time to think before they vote.
By JEFFREY SCOTT SHAPIRO
In the wake of the horrific elementary-school shootings in Newtown, Conn., last month, many Americans,... decided that much stricter gun control is the answer.
As a former prosecutor in Washington, D.C., who enforced firearms and ammunition cases while a severe local gun ban was still in effect,... I dislike guns, but I believe that a nationwide firearms crackdown would place an undue burden on law enforcement and endanger civil liberties while potentially increasing crime.
The D.C. gun ban, enacted in 1976, prohibited anyone other than law-enforcement officers from carrying a firearm in the city. Residents were even barred from keeping guns in their homes for self-defense.
The gun ban had an unintended effect: It emboldened criminals because they knew that law-abiding District residents were unarmed and powerless to defend themselves.
Violent crime increased after the law was enacted...
Civil liberties were endangered.
In 2007, a panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled that the city's gun ban was unconstitutional.
The ruling was affirmed the following year by the Supreme Court in District of Columbia v. Heller. Justice Antonin Scalia's majority opinion said that citizens were guaranteed a right to keep firearms that were in common use in their homes for self-defense, but that the government could pass reasonable regulations concerning firearms and ammunition.
Heller created a panic among gun-control advocates because it condoned the ownership of semiautomatic handguns, which are among the most common firearms in use but also the target of many restriction efforts.
Since the gun ban was struck down, murders in the District have steadily gone down...
In effect, many people would like to apply the District's legal philosophy on firearms to the entire nation. Based on what happened in Washington, I think that would be a mistake. Any sense of safety and security would be a false one.
Mr. Shapiro was a criminal prosecutor for the District of Columbia from 2007-09.