The District’s gun control laws and statehood campaign made their way onto a national stage Tuesday with the release of the 2012 Republican Party Platform.
The platform included a D.C.-specific section that calls for looser rules on gun ownership in a city it said was susceptible to terrorism.
It also opposed D.C. statehood outright – a point of contention for Mayor Vincent Gray, a Democrat who has fought for the city to become the 51st state throughout his term.
Doxie McCoy, a spokeswoman for Gray’s office, took issue with the gun control and statehood clauses. She praised the city’s tight rules on gun control and said “more guns do not equal safer communities.”
“We believe it’s hypocritical that the party that supposedly stands for states’ rights would oppose the rights of District of Columbia residents to pass and preserve our own laws,” she added.
D.C.’s mayors must receive Congressional approval to spend local tax dollars – a procedure city government officials have criticized.
Ms. McCoy apparently needs an education on the Constitution, which is pretty explicit about DC’s status as a non-state. Also, if more guns don’t equal safer communities, then why is DC such a shithole?
GW Why are you such a shit-brain!
1) Washington, DC is not a State, and the reasons for it are multiple and go back as far as James Madison in Federalist 43. As a matter of fact, by that argument, home rule should never have been established, as a municipal government could act counter to the interests of, and impede the functions of the Federal Government. The District was never intended to have multiple generations of permanent residents, and was only a temporary domicile for individuals while working there or serving in Congress. Such individuals are represented by Senators and Members of Congress from their home States. I stuck around Foggy Bottom for 2 years after GW, and always considered myself an “exiled” resident of New Jersey.
So partition the city, give the Southeast and Northeast back to Maryland; allow the once independent and established town of Georgetown, Montgomery County, MD to exist again. Bethesda can take anything north of there.
2) The poster asks in the second point whether onerous legal restrictions on gun ownership as the District has effectively deters crime. That is a legitimate question with worthwhile pro and con arguments. That is not a dumb question.
@scott Thanks for the cogent, well-informed response to my post. Let me guess, you’re a Democrat…
Too bad that Congress bowed to creeps like Marion Barry in the late 1960′s and gave home rule to the District.
Hopefully the new Congress and President Romney can work to reduce the power of those that want to run what is essentially the Federal Government’s company town as their own fiefdom.
Or maybe appease them by throwing Southeast back to Prince George’s County, where they can run it as another corrupt third-world dictatorship, legalize crack and 24/7 liquor stores, and elect Marion Barry “King for Life”.
@Bud Fox I love the racism.
@Ryan, I guess you don’t know political satire in re: the third paragraph of post 2.
Had you been here through the Barry days in the 90′s, you’d get it. DC government was far different back then. It was corrupt and run like a fiefdom for Mayor for Life Barry and his cronies. The crack problem in Southeast was epidemic, and the 14th Street Bridge corridor was also a place for drug dealing and prostitution.
Marion Barry has not “reformed” himself, no matter what he says. He has been in and out of rehab several times and now lives in what is basically a housing project. He was a con man who got the masses to vote for him, and dragged the city down in the process. (Ref: “The Nine Lives of Marion Barry”, TV, 2009)