Just as Councilmember Phil Mendelson (D-At Large) proposed in October that restrictions on gun stores be eased, today he introduced legislation that would make the process of buying and registering a gun simpler for District residents.

The legislation would correct what he called a “quandary in the law” under which residents are forced out of the city to take a gun safety course before they can actually purchase or register a gun. Under his legislation, a resident could temporarily register a gun while taking the course.

Mendelson’s proposal would also scrap the requirements for a ballistic test and a vision test, and further require registration only for the first gun purchased, not any subsequent ones.

Ever since the 2008 Supreme Court decision that found the District’s ban on handguns unconstitutional, the city has awkwardly stumbled through a series of restrictions and regulations on the purchase and registration of handguns. (The being said, two courts have found existing rules constitutional.) Currently, there are no gun stores in the city, and only one federally licensed transfer agent exists — and he works in MPD headquarters after having lost his lease in April.

In a series on buying and registering a gun, Washington Times columnist Emily Miller wrote of the difficulty of finding good safety courses before being able to move forward to actually buy a gun.

“This is huge for gun rights in D.C.,” she tweeted this afternoon.