i am starting to like the idea of the "state" owning the gun shop in the city. that way, if run correctly (i know, i know, i'm asking for a lot there), the city will have direct access to records of who owns what weapon, and who bought what ammo.

Phil Mendelson should go away. He thinks anti-loitering laws aimed at groups of drug dealers hanging out in areas deemed hotspots are a severe violation of civil liberties, yet he wants to regulate law abiding citizens with registered guns to keep them locked up, unloaded, and kept in a safe.

Whose side is he on?

That rail isn't the only thing cracked in Takoma, but I suppose a rail is easier to repair than a community belief system.

"Mendelson is your basic pinko liberal wuss. Bad guys should be treated with kindness and love."

Yep, us pinkos love nothing more than giving a great big, sweaty hug to the guy that just mugged us. It's been our m.o. for years.

14thandYou - I am a liberal but I agree with the statement about Mendelson. He isn't living in reality and believes that liberalism is all about joining hands and singing kum-by-ya. Guys like that give reason a bad name.

g lover park: of course illegally-owned handguns won't be on this list, but i think it will protect the law-abiding gun owners by making it very simple for the police to quickly determine that a law-abiding citizen's gun wasn't involved in a crime when said police can quickly compare ballistics details...

Felons, the mentally ill, drug users, and wife beaters are still going to buy their guns and ammo from the same people they always have.

Yeah, but when the mentally ill buy the rayguns they use to defeat the blancmanges from the Planet Skyron in the Galaxy of Andromeda, the cops will be their with a pair of handcuffs to arrest the non-DC-approved raygun dealer.

Godwin's Law invoked in less than 16 posts? I believe that's a new record.

And I think you screwed up. #8 should say "KHAAAAAAAAAAN!"

No worries. I can barely make it to lunch without mentioning Hitler at least three times. "Goddamit! This fax machine is worse than Hitler!" "Who's the lousy stinking Hitler who didn't flush?" "Some idiot really Hitlered up the copy machine."

I don't quite understand the rationale behind keeping the ban on semiautomatics. Is it just that semiautos can carry more ammo? They don't fire any faster than a revolver.

If Sony can sell MP3 players out of a vending machine, I don't understand why I can't buy a gun out of one. You got all those empty cigarette machines taking up space around town. C'mon, how many times have you been standing in line at the VD clinic next to some wheezing asthmatic having an attack and some punk with a sucking chest wound and you say to yourself, "I'd do anything for a gun right now." And your only options are $1.50 Pepsis, Twizzlers, and honey buns. I mean, cut the crap, people! WHEN DO WE GET THE FREAKING GUNS? I'm OUTTA here! I've had it up to HERE with your "rules!"

@IMGOPH

Well, now wait a minute: you said you wanted to protect me (as a conservative gun toting/owning/loving conservative, who I assure you is quite nasty) from suspicion in any violent crime involving a gun by confirming it wasn't my gun that was involved in furtherance thereof. According to your view therefore, everyone who legally owns a gun must be a suspect if you need to check the records to make sure it wasn't a legal owner's gun that was used in the crime.

And I'm not disagreeing that a ballstics pre-test is necessarily a bad idea, since it could very well be that someone who legally bought a gun used it to commit a crime. But what I AM saying is that is a pretty wierd place to start the inquiry on getting to the bottom of who shot up those Koreans because, of all the guns used in crimes in our fair hamlet, I know for a fact that nearly every gun used since 1976 was illegally obtained and that the gun ban didn't do squat to stop any of it. And I doubt that, with the number of violent crimes committed here already, the overturning of the ban is going to represent a huge spike in violent gun crimes anyway, since the only new guns in circulation will have been obtained by people who respect the law and have obtained their weapon through legal means.

And as for me wanting enough guns to shoot up all the Koreans, well, last time I checked the folks who are in the bidness of shooting up Koreans (not me by the way) had all the guns they needed. I'm looking forward to the Day when the Koreans have the ability to shoot back. Note, not when they actually start shooting back, but simply have the ability. Because I bet you a Twinkie when they do a lot of these stick-ups will cease because the punks who walk in there thinking Mamasan doesn't have a piece may not be so sure all of a sudden. See, I think the Koreans getting shot up in the first place is a bad idea--bad for real estate values, ya know.

But so long as we are on now on the subject of what does and doesn’t work in terms of new gun regs: I’ve got a few ideas the DC Council can have for free:

1) Possession of an illegal handgun: mandatory minimum 5 years

2) Possession of an illegal handgun in furtherance of a felony: mandatory minimum 20 years.

3) All violators of handgun regulations prosecuted as adults

@Monkey: continuing of ban on semi-automatics?: one of many future lawsuits to be fought and lost by the District on your taxpayer dime.

SOME semi-automatics can carry more rounds than a revolver, and some can't. They also don't shoot any faster. It's just an irrational fears of DC gov't and police who don't know any better and can't be bothered to consult anyone [hello - ATF'S technology branch has a DC office last I checked]. DC's firearms laws don't even make sense technically. Many of the "definition" used in the code are not correct. Technically, under current DC law, every Glock an MPD officer carries is a "machine gun". Obviously it's not.