They say that it’s good to never give up, but would someone send Rep. Mark Souder (R-Ind.) a memo telling him that sometimes it’s cool to throw in the towel?

According to a press release issued yesterday by DC Vote, Souder is looking to re-introduce legislation that would do away with the District’s gun laws. Didn’t the Supreme Court recently rule that the city’s gun ban was unconstitutional, and didn’t the police recently start registering handguns and the D.C. Council start re-writing the city’s gun regulations? Yes, yes and yes.

But Souder has been trying for years to gut the District’s gun laws, and the Supreme Court’s decision has seemingly emboldened him in his quest to make handguns available to everyone, no registration or other reasonable restrictions standing in the way. He’s apparently even more committed than before — this time, he’s trying to get the legislation out of the House Government Reform Committee by discharging it, a legislative maneuver that could get the bill to the floor for a vote against the wishes of the committee chairman. D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton isn’t happy, a point she made clear in a statement released yesterday.

Sigh. We don’t need to repeat the same old arguments about home rule, local voices for local choices, Congress getting out of our business, the need for Souder to be declared persona non grata in the District and be helicoptered to and from his office every day without touching city soil, and so on. They’re obvious enough to us. Well, most of us.

Photo by lynch_m_j