Despite a ban on handguns and draconian restrictions on long guns, the District of Columbia (“Washington D.C.”) has a serious problem with criminals using guns. Between March and April alone, this city of about 500,000 people has had over 330 reports of gun related crimes. As VOA reports, it is not unusual for D.C. residents to turn on the news to hear “Detectives in Washington’s sixth police district are investigating three shootings today alone. The man who was shot died tonight.“
The District of Columbia has had a handgun ban for over 30 years, yet it has been known as the “murder capitol” of the country, as well as the national capitol. The simple fact is that criminals in the District of Columbia, Chicago, Oak Park, IL, and every other location will ignore the laws — that is what makes them criminals. This is true whether it is a law against murder, a law against gun possession, or a law against robbery. The only people who obey the gun control laws are the law abiding citizens, who should be able to have guns to defend themselves against the criminals, since the police likely won’t get there in time. The law abiding people who obey the gun ban are not the people we should be worried about, and the criminals we should worry about will ignore the gun ban anyway. Even worse, the criminals know that that the law abiding citizens, who have something to live for, will be easy targets since they are obeying the gun ban.
Hopefully, the D.C. v. Heller case, in which the Supreme Court will almost certainly declare the D.C. handgun ban unconstitutional, will lift the handgun ban that has left the D.C. citizens at the mercy of the criminals.