Michael Neibauer, The Examiner
2008-07-15 07:00:00.0
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WASHINGTON -

District residents may be able to register a handgun as soon as today, as the D.C. Council is expected to adopt emergency legislation lifting the 32-year-old firearm ban and replacing it with regulations allowing pistols in the home for self-defense.

Less than three weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the District’s handgun ban as unconstitutional, Mayor Adrian Fenty and the council have reached an agreement on new procedures for licensing gun owners and dealers, policies for registering firearms, and rules for keeping those weapons in the home.

“We are set up and we are prepared to implement those immediately through the police department,” Metropolitan Police Chief Cathy Lanier said during a news conference on the steps of the John A. Wilson Building.

The emergency rules, which will take effect immediately, ban semiautomatic handguns, prohibit carrying a weapon outside the home — the “home” as defined does not include a yard or porch — require ballistic testing of all registered firearms and demand all applicants for a license pass a written exam on gun safety.

The new bill will replace emergency gun-control legislation Councilman Phil Mendelson introduced earlier this month.

The 10-step process for registering a handgun mandates multiple stops at Metropolitan Police Department headquarters, two meetings with a gun dealer and biding time for the U.S. mail, a process that could take weeks or months, Fenty acknowledged Monday. Purchasing a firearm will also be a multistep process given the dearth of licensed dealers in the District.

Under the proposed regulations, guns must remain unloaded and either disassembled or trigger-locked unless there is a “reasonably perceived threat of immediate harm to the person,” a phrase that goes undefined. It would not include, for example, simply living in a high-crime neighborhood, said Attorney General Peter Nickles, who drafted the rules in coordination with Mendelson.

“We are trying to balance the right to have a handgun for use of self-defense in the home, with protecting our citizens,” Nickles said.

The rules are likely to spur yet another lawsuit from gun rights advocates, District leaders acknowledged, but “we believe we stand on solid legal ground,” Fenty said.

The emergency rules will remain in effect for 90 days, during which time residents will only be permitted to register one handgun each. The government will continue looking for that “right balance to protect the public safety from the scourge of gun violence in the District while at the same time being responsive to the Supreme Court,” Mendelson said.

mneibauer@dcexaminer.com