Washington, D.C. - U.S. Congressman Kevin Brady (R-The Woodlands) voted today for House passage of H.R. 3193, the District of Columbia Personal Protection Act, which would end a decades-old unconstitutional and ineffective law in our nation’s capital.  The bill passed the House by a bipartisan majority of 250-171.

 

“What do D.C. residents have to show for being deprived their right to keep and bear arms for the last 28 years?  Year after year, the city has earned the sad distinction of ‘murder capital of the country.’  This bill allows homeowners to defend their families, a right all Americans have,” said Brady.

 

According to U.S. Justice Department figures, Washington, D.C., has been the “murder capital of the country” for 14 of the last 15 years.  Currently, the D.C. homicide rate is nearly five times greater than the national average.  This escalating murder rate began only after the D.C. Council deprived law-abiding citizens of the right to defend themselves and their families by effectively banning handguns and other firearms in 1976.

 

Strangely enough, under the District’s gun-control laws, it is legal to keep an operable firearm in a business. The fact that a business owner is given legal permission to protect his store, shop and office with a firearm but not himself, his wife or his children in his home defies all common sense and logic.

A majority of the House of Representatives – 228 Members, including 44 Democrats – sponsored the D.C. Personal Protection Act.  A companion bill in the Senate (S. 1414) currently has 33 sponsors.

 

Congress has legislative power over the District of Columbia under Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution which grants Congress the power “To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever” in the District of Columbia.