It was a mere three weeks ago that Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) introduced the District of Columbia Personal Protection Act, a law which if passed would dismantle the District’s three-decades old strict prohibition on the ownership of handguns and limit the ability of the City Council to pass laws regulating the ownership or sale of guns. To date, the law has attracted 31 co-sponsors in the Senate, while its counterpart in the House, introduced again by Rep. Mark Souder (R-Ind.), has 157 co-sponsors.

While announcing the introduction of the legislation, Sen. Hutchison both complained of the unconstitutionality of the District’s gun laws and of her inability to store her own Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum revolver, pictured here, by her bedside in her D.C. home (though she is legally allowed to own a rifle or shotgun, as 101,000 District residents do). She stated:

I have always had a handgun in the drawer next to my bed, and I would certainly again have one if it were legal in D.C. I think every woman in the District of Columbia should have the ability to protect herself in her home.

By the sound of her pleas, one would think Sen. Hutchison was living in a neighborhood beset by waves of violence and insecurity. Was owning and storing a loaded weapon her only option to defend her homestead? Or was this discourse merely more cynicism in an already cynical ploy to shore up her conservative bases before a rumored run for the governorship in gun-friendly Texas?

DCist did a little digging, and after the jump are our findings.