Jumping through hoops is not my style. If you put a series of hoops in front of me, I’m likely to just turn around and go somewhere else. Not Dick Heller, of Heller vs. District of Columbia fame.
Dick Heller showed up at the District of Columbia Courts with his gun in his hand. Sort of. Yesterday the victorious plaintiff in Heller vs. D.C. showed up downtown to register his gun but hesititated to bring it with him; cops told him to show up packing. So this morning at 9 a.m. Heller rendezvoused with advisors Dane von Breichenruchardt and Brad Jansen carrying his 1911 single-action Colt .22 revolver in a cherry-red vinyl case. “Concealed carry!” Heller said. “It doesn’t look so bad, does it?”
The three men walked over to the courts to greet a small throng of libertarian activists and reporters from local news amd NRANews.com. “There were more cameras yesterday,” mused von Breichenruchardt. “There were vans outside”—he waved his hand and pointed to the curb—”just more reporters, generally.” There were just enough reporters to pack the room when Heller entered and handed the gun over to police to start what became a 90-minute registration process.
Heller emerged from the courts with a thumbs up: He’d met with partial success. The city had taken finger prints, administered a 20-question exam, and subjected the gun to a ballistics. He could take the gun home as long as it was empty and trigger-locked. But he’d have to come back in a week with two passport photos, and wait for the city to process the rest of his information with a background check. Part of the reason for the delay is the city’s law defining “machine guns”—anything that loads from the bottom or can hold more than 12 rounds at a time qualifies. “It’s in the city’s hands now,” Jansen said.
Heller is doing the rest of us a service by drawing publicity to exactly how ridiculous the process of trying to be a legal gun owner in Washington, D.C. is. Always remember that D.C. has one of the highest crime rates anywhere, unlike areas of the country with higher rates of gun ownership. I suppose the criminals might be attracted to all the crimes being committed on the hill, but I don’t think it hurts any that they are the only private citizens with guns in a city where authoritarianism is more important than common sense.
Frankly, you’d have to pay me more than I’m worth to get me to move to a city where I’m not allowed to defend myself and must jump through hoops all day to keep massa happy. In this case, the plantation has changed and the slavery is economic instead of physical, but it’s still slavery as far as I am concerned.