That nasty fruit salad bill resting on the questionable bed of whether the District of Columbia should be granted voting rights has stalled in the House.
Why?
Because of Senate amendment S.575, a bit of pork (so-called only because it has nothing to do with the original bill) added to restore Second Amendment rights to the District of Columbia. Two of the reasons for this as stated in the amendment are:
(3) The law-abiding citizens of the District of Columbia are deprived by local laws of handguns, rifles, and shotguns that are commonly kept by law-abiding persons throughout the United States for sporting use and for lawful defense of their persons, homes, businesses, and families.
(4) The District of Columbia has the highest per capita murder rate in the Nation, which may be attributed in part to local laws prohibiting possession of firearms by law-abiding persons who would otherwise be able to defend themselves and their loved ones in their own homes and businesses.
D.C. delegate Eleanor Holmes-Norton dressed down the House, saying, “The gravest insult is to pit the safety and security of everybody in the District — from the president down to the kids who can now get hold of military weapons plus District residents — put all that at risk by putting this reckless bill forward.” Conveniently forgetting that only 2 years ago Charles H. Ramsey, D.C. police chief, was quoted as saying, “Young black males, in groups of five to six, ages 13 to 15, are displaying handguns and beating their victims.”
I tell you, if I lived in an area like that, you’d be prying my Second Amendment rights and my Sig-Sauer from my cold, stiff fingers.
Call it pork but it did stop the DC vote. Then again sad for the DC folks since like Chicago those gun bans work so well.