Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) may be a reliable Republican, but he’s never made much noise when it comes to the District. That changed last week when he successfully added an amendment to legislation granting the District a voting seat in the House that would effectively gut the city’s gun laws. While many a Republican before him have done the same — Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Tex.) first among them — it is his move that could end up sinking the measure.

With the frustration of many District residents and voting rights activists aimed squarely at the Nevada senator, yesterday Ensign spoke to the press about guns and voting rights. The City Paper got a recording of the presser in which Ensign lays out his vision for the District — guns yes, voting rights no.

In essence, Ensign laid out a case for not changing anything, 600,000 non-voting residents be damned. In his view, the current legislation is unconstitutional, any change to the constitution would give the District some sort of disproportionate sway over congressional affairs, home rule is good insofar as Congress can overrule it, and District residents need guns more than they need voting rights. If we’ve said it once, we’ve said it a million times — hasn’t history told us what happens when large groups of people are unrepresented, overtaxed and well-armed?

Ensign is taking the lead in another District matter today as well. He’s scheduled a press conference with fellow Republicans Jim DeMint and Jon Kyl at 11:15 a.m. in the Capitol Visitors Center to “discuss the importance” of the Opportunity Scholarship Program, D.C.’s school voucher program that’s in danger of being gutted under the Democratic budget.