Michael Neibauer, The Examiner
2008-08-10 07:00:00.0
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WASHINGTON -

Firearms dealers who apply for a D.C. location will be largely restricted to high density commercial areas downtown and kept at least two football fields away from where people live, play and pray, according to emergency rules now in place.

The regulations were adopted by the D.C. Zoning Commission on July 28, five weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that District residents have a right to keep a handgun in the home for self-defense, striking down the city’s 32-year-old ban.

Emergency rules expire after 120 days, and city planners expect to return to the commission in September with a permanent proposal.

All applicants, under the new rules, must appear before the Board of Zoning Adjustments to obtain a special zoning exception. Retail stores will be limited to the downtown area, generally between Massachusetts and Pennsylvania avenues Northwest, in addition to about 25 square blocks between Independence Avenue and M Street in Southwest. No dealer will be allowed within 600 feet of a residence, school, library, church or playground.

The Office of Planning wanted to get rules in place “before a bunch of people went and got permits to open their establishment next to an elementary school,” said Harriet Tregoning, the office’s director. There was no time to do research, she said, so the emergency regulations were purposefully restrictive “to buy ourselves some time.”

“These are meant to be downtown,” Tregoning said, “our most well-policed, regulated part of the city.”

But D.C. Councilman Phil Mendelson said the zoning rules, which were drafted without council input, play “into the argument that the District is going to throw up every obstacle to thwart the Supreme Court’s ruling.”

“We can’t win that fight,” he said.

Among possible gun store locations: Immediately west of the White House on 17th Street, roughly 10 blocks bordering the National Mall, and the general area of D.C. police headquarters.

“I believe a nightclub has a greater impact on neighborhoods,” said Ward 6 D.C. Councilman Tommy Wells, whose constituency includes much of Southwest. “With sufficient controls on the purchase of weapons, I don’t think there’s any greater likelihood that people will be discharging [their gun] any closer to where they bought it.”

The zoning hoops are in addition to local and federal firearm dealer licensing requirements.

The owner of D.C.’s only licensed gun dealer, CS Exchange, has said he will deal only in firearm transfers, not retail sales.

Buying, registering and storing a handgun in the District remains a challenge despite the Supreme Court’s historic decision. The city is already the subject of another lawsuit for its continuing ban on semiautomatics, its rigorous gun registration process and its demand that all guns stay locked and unloaded at virtually all times.

mneibauer@dcexaminer.com