Mayor Adrian Fenty and the D.C. Council, along with Attorney General Peter Nickles and Police Chief Cathy Lanier, announced the details of early legislation that will regulate the registration and storage of handguns in post-Heller D.C.

“We continue to take every step we can to minimize handgun violence in the District,” said Mayor Fenty. “We must prevent handguns from falling into the wrong hands or being misused, while allowing District residents to exercise their Second Amendment rights under the Heller ruling.”

Public Safety Committee Chairman Phil Mendelson released a statement saying that these proposed rules are just a first step.

“Moving forward, the Council’s open and public deliberations on this important issue will give the residents of the District of Columbia as well as subject matter experts an opportunity to weigh in and help shape our new policies,” Mendelson said.

Here’s what they’re proposing:

• Allowing an exception for handgun ownership for self-defense use inside the home.
• If you want to keep a handgun in your home, the MPD will have to perform ballistic testing on it before it can be legally registered.
• There will be a limit to one handgun per person for the first 90 days after the legislation becomes law.
• Firearms in the home must be stored unloaded and disassembled, and secured with either a trigger lock, gun safe, or similar device. The new law will allow an exception for a firearm while it is being used against an intruder in the home.
• Residents who legally register handguns in the District will not be required to have licenses to carry them inside their own homes.

More from the press release on Chief Lanier’s proposed rules for how D.C. residents must go about registering handguns below the jump.