Gun Control: How a Bureaucracy Does It

by Robert W. Hunnicutt • November 10, 2011 • 6 comments

You can get a Supreme Court decision affirming your rights, but as this story: http://www.washingtontimes.com/blog/guns/2011/nov/7/miller-washingtons-unsafe-gun-safety-class/ demonstrates, that’s just the first step toward exercising them. Washington Times editor Emily Miller is going through the process of getting a legal handgun in the city, and one of the requirements is taking a city-approved safety class. Since the classes can’t be given in the city, she embarks on a confusing search for a certified instructor, not helped a bit by the city’s police establishment, which clearly is going for governance as imagined by Kafka.

I was working at the NRA when D.C. banned handguns in 1976, and the association complained that the law would prevent the American Rifleman from fulfilling its customary role as consumer watchdog of the gun world. Obligingly, the D.C. government created a new occupational category called “licensed firearms tester.” If you were one, you could transport guns in and out of the District, which I did, quite often, on the bus and Metro subway system.

The only bad part of it was going down to D.C. Police Headquarters for fingerprinting. My advice is, don’t get arrested in D.C. The whole licensed tester thing became moot when we moved our operation to Virginia in 1987, but somewhere I still have my licensed tester card.

 

In Culture & Politics • Tagged

6 Responses

  1. longtimegunowner

    She sounds like she complains pretty easily. Legalizing pistols in DC, we should be rejoicing, not nitpicking because a few of the numbers she had didn't work. Did she once try to go to a gun shop and talk to someone who is not a cop? Or maybe a range where no doubt the course would be at? At least they started to put together a list. The "DC certified" instructor thing can be pain, depending on how it is managed, but the article overblown the whole safety issue. Is the reader to think that you're going to meet someone at 0300 in a deserted part of town alone?

    On December 1, 2011 at 1:51 am • Reply
    • Cindy Freeman

      what the f are you rambling about ? there are NO gun shops in DC, classes are in another state, rejoicing that DC is doing it;s best to circumvent our 2nd amendment rights without being sued ????? Your obviously also totally ignorant about being a woman you must not know any.
      people like you are why people like me fight for our country in the military and in the courts to preserve your rights you obviously take for granted.

      On December 7, 2011 at 6:07 am • Reply
  2. Paul Flanagan

    There are no gun shops or firing ranges in D.C. The D.C. police make it near impossible to get a 'Permit to own'.
    The entire process takes a MINIMUM of 4 trips to the Police Dept., photographs, fingerprints, notarised documents and fees.

    On December 3, 2011 at 1:11 pm • Reply
  3. Zebra

    and even after all this isn't D.C. the murder capitol of the USA?

    On December 5, 2011 at 4:38 am • Reply
    • Cindy Freeman

      gee wonder why ? when guns are outlawed only outlaws have guns ! Statistics repeatedly show the towns with near zero crime rate also have 90% plus gun owners who openly carry.

      On December 7, 2011 at 6:10 am • Reply
  4. Speakup

    More than thirty years later a gun ban is overturned by the Supreme court, no wonder anti-gunner's aren't worried or state and city governments in any hurry to come into compliance.

    On December 6, 2011 at 5:26 pm • Reply