Peter Nickles, the Attorney General for the District of Columbia, recently stated said that presidential and other motorcades will be exposed to high-powered arms fire if D.C. is prevented by congress from continuing to violate citizens’ gun rights, which it is doing in spite of the D.C. v. Heller Supreme Court case.. This idea is an unfounded departure from reality, as I discuss below.
To briefly recap, the District of Columbia had a handgun ban for decades. Criminals consistently ignored this handgun ban, and committed murder after murder, causing D.C. to take turns with Chicago as the murder capitol of the United States. The law abiding, handgun ban obeying citizens were left vulnerable and unable to defend themselves against murderers, rapists, home invaders, and other criminals. A lawsuit was filed in the hopes of striking down this unconstitutional violation of the Second Amendment, and in the summer of 2008, the Supreme Court did just that in D.C. v. Heller. While that landmark case is of great importance, the D.C. city council adopted incredibly strict gun control laws, which continue to violate D.C. residents’ gun rights. In response, Congress is considering legislation that would put an end to the D.C. city council’s violations of the Second Amendment.
Getting to D.C. Attorney General Peter Nickles’ concern about ending the unreasonable D.C. gun restrictions, I think the logical flaw in his reasoning is readily apparent. That is because the individuals who are sophisticated and/or determined enough to assassinate the president or other governmental officials are going to be more than willing to ignore gun control laws. Indeed, it is laughable to think that a person or group bent on killing world leaders would scrub their plans out of a desire to avoid violating the D.C. gun laws, especially since common street criminals continue to violate those same gun laws every single day. Remember, gun control laws only effect those individuals who conform their behavior to the law – not rapists, murderers, home invaders or assassins.
My thanks to Anders for pointing out this news story.