Comrade Phil content with same-same gun laws

On the streets of Saigon and Hanoi, “same-same” means that all the ubiquitous shops that line the streets sell pretty much the same stuff, whether it’s lacquered bowls

or stone Buddhas or paper lanterns.

Reading about the seven men shot and killed Saturday night on D.C.’s streets, and the three who were wounded, I also thought: Same-same.

Same sad reports of lives lost to drive-by shootings and crap games gone bad and guns fired in the heat of the moment.

Same words of concern from Mayor Adrian Fenty.

Same promises of more cops from the police brass.

Same-same.

But regular and random gunplay in the nation’s capital does not have to be same-same. People who live in neighborhoods like Trinidad in Northeast and Anacostia in Southeast, where most of the recent bloodshed has occurred, do not have to hide in their homes. Grandmothers and mothers

do not have to wonder if the “pop-pop-pop” has killed one of their kids.

To change the same-same of gun violence, the city council simply has to strengthen laws against carrying guns. Right now, the penalties for being caught with a gun in D.C. are a joke. Cops arrest people for carrying guns,

the perps laugh at them, pass through Superior Court and walk out.

- Get this: If cops arrest someone for carrying a pistol, they have to take the gun into the basement of police headquarters and fire it into a water barrel to prove that it’s operable — before taking the suspect to court.

- Get this: If cops stop a car and find a gun on the back seat, they can’t arrest the driver for possession because he wasn’t holding it.

- Get this: If someone is found guilty of carrying a weapon without a license, the penalty is a misdemeanor, no worse than a traffic ticket.

The council member who has the power to take the smile off the faces of gun-toting residents is Phil Mendelson, chairman of the Judiciary Committee. Yet Mendelson has ignored pleas by police and prosecutors who have asked for tougher laws, such as mandatory minimum sentences. Says police union chief Kris Baumann: “There’s soft on crime, very soft on crime, then there’s Phil.”

Mendelson prides himself on being the most liberal member on a liberal council. Which is why some cops call him “Comrade Phil.”

Mendelson has told me he’s satisfied with current laws and penalties for carrying guns, though he might hold hearings on the “operability” requirement. Interestingly, the most steadfast advocate for tougher gun laws, such as mandatory minimums, is Marion

Barry.

At-large member Kwame Brown wonders: “If you are caught carrying a gun, does it mean anything? If there were harsher consequences for carrying a gun, I wonder if that would save any lives?

Good questions.

But unless someone persuades Mendelson to toughen the laws, it will be random gunplay, blood on the street, wailing women.

Same-same.