With a hat tip to the City Paper’s Mike DeBonis, today we find that one of our esteemed D.C. Council members isn’t just complaining about a congressional amendment that would gut the District’s gun laws — he’s trying to get even with one of its sponsors.

In a letter sent yesterday to D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), Council member Kwame Brown (D-At Large) asked that the Democratic leadership consider making it a crime for U.S. citizens to cross state lines in order to solicit sex, whether or not it’s legal in that state or not.

What does this have to do with anything? Nevada is one of two states in which prostitution is legal, and one of its congressional delegates is none other than Republican Sen. John Ensign, who inserted the gun law-gutting language into legislation that would grant the District a voting seat in the House of Representatives. Similar language has stalled the bill in the House.

In the letter, Brown argues that local laws should be left to local officials, not members of Congress. “As a local elected official, in addition to having full federal representation, I believe that citizens have the right to determine the best means by which to secure the safety of themselves and their families. If we must compromise our local governing authority in order to satisfy the moral arguments of a few representatives, I believe it is reasonable to ask them to consider our moral values in return,” wrote Brown. “If elected officials from states, namely Nevada, can introduce legislation that alters the local laws of the District, I believe the District should offer an amendment that imposes our moral values on such states where prostitution is legal.”

Even though this is sure to go nowhere — voting rights supporter Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is a Nevada man himself, and he’s not a guy to piss off right now — we give Brown points for creativity. All too often we complain of the indignity of having Congress step in to tell us how to run our affairs, and a little creative dissent can be a good thing. Brown also scores on the name of his proposal — the “Roses amendment.” Why roses? “I believe we should fight guns with roses and continue moving the DC Voting Rights Act forward,” explains Brown.