I live in Washington, DC. In case you don't know, it is a real city with real people who live here (full-time, not just for 2, 4, or 6 years). The city is much more than the federal government. A couple of other fascinating factoids: More people live in DC than in Wyoming; the majority of residents are African-American.
I hope you all know that DC does not have Congressional representation. It took an amendment to the Constitution to give DC residents the right to vote for the president, fer cryin' out loud. Even though the city has had home rule since the mid-1970s, Congress has the final say.
Back in 1976, DC banned handguns. (Go here for a chronology of the gun ban.) Ever since, the House of Representatives has tried to overturn that law. Earlier this year, the Supreme Court finally did. [Note that this decision came soon after the one that gave a few rights to those being held at Guantanamo. The dissenting opinion in that case said that the majority's decision would result in more Americans being killed. Umm...you know, I don't have the statistics on the number of Americans killed last year in terrorist acts vs. the number killed by guns, but I'm guessing the latter is much larger than the former. I guess it's different if Americans kill Americans?]
The city has been trying to preserve as much of the prior law as possible, while still complying with the Court's decision. Apparently, that's not enough for the House, which yesterday passed legislation making it easier for residents to own guns. Gee, I guess we should just be happy they dropped the provision to allow people to carry semi-automatic weapons on the street. But it does put some limits on the city's authority to register weapons. You know it's an election year when Congress starts meddling in DC affairs in order to score points back home by doing things they would NEVER do to their own constituents. Never mind the underlying racism at play, given the city's population.
So next time you visit DC, bring your gun and your kevlar vest.
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I found some stats on the causes of death in the US (so doesn't include those who died outside of the US, like in Iraq or Afghanistan) in 2005:
Firearms:
12,352 - assault (homicide)
17,002 - suicide
221 - undetermined intent
789 - accidental
Total: 30,364 deaths related to firearms
War and its sequelae (closest thing I could find to terrorism): 27
guns don't kill people,
Stupid people with guns kill people.
I agree with what you say Kande. Our current government, the ones that are going for a majority this time around, are pro-guns. Now Canada has vast wilderness and I know many families who are hunters. There is a back country saying about a father is not doing his family well unless he has a moose in his freezer come winter. Those families are also known to keep their guns under lock and key and their ammo under another lock and key.
What out politicians hear is Canada wants guns and they pass laws allowing city dwellers to carry semi-automatic guns in highly populated areas.
This is NOT a fine line here, this is a big bold red wall....
I will make you a deal - if you can get your bad guys to stop bringing guns to Canada, I will see what I can do about our famous BC Bud being smuggled into the USA.
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