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What feels like forever ago we posted about our experiences with the bureaucratic nightmare of getting married in DC. DC takes that same approach to gun ownership. Now we know this can be a touchy subject, so please understand this is no NRA sponsored rant. We didn’t have a problem with the handgun ban, if a majority of DC residents wanted the (now lifted) handgun ban in place that was fine with us. We also support reasonable regulations to ensure that guns only wind up in responsible hands. But even when the handgun ban was in place you could purchase and register a rifle, which is the subject of this post.
The fact is we don’t want a handgun, and we don’t want a gun for protection purposes. But a lever action rifle has been calling our names ever since we were a kid and watched our first Western. Now that we’re older and wiser, we know we don’t really want a Winchester 73; but those 22 caliber repeating rifles sure look like they’d be fun to shoot.
Once we decided we were seriously interested in pursuing a rifle purchase, we checked with the MPD to see what we had to do to get the gun. The initial steps are pretty straightforward: Get an application from MPD, take it to the firearms dealer, pick out a gun, and have the dealer fill out the form. The passport photo requirements, fingerprinting, and background check (takes up to 2 weeks) were in line with what we expected. The part that seems excessive, and designed to keep people from ever actually registering a gun, is the following:
Proof that you have met the minimum training requirement of four hours of classroom instruction and one hour of range instruction conducted by a state-certified or certified military firearms instructor.
4 hours of classroom instruction? To go target shooing with a 22 caliber rifle we have to sit through (and pay for) 4 hours of classroom instruction? Again for a handgun we support stronger requirements, but this is a squirrel hunting rifle at best. This class isn’t taught or offered by the MPD, you have to pay a 3rd party to give you the 4 hour class and then the (completely reasonable) 1 hour shooting range session. If MPD offered these classes that would help make this requirement more palatable, but clearly they are trying to make the processes as difficult as possible. There is also a 20 question written test (you have to get 15 right) and numerous fees to pay, but again those all seem like the fairly reasonable requirements.
The gun registration process could have been reasonably difficult without that 4 hour classroom requirement. “Reasonably difficult” seems like the best approach to gun registration and ownership. Fingerprinting, background checks, written test, waiting period; those are all perfectly reasonable requirements. But they lose us at the classroom requirement. We called a few of the names the MPD provides but couldn’t get a quote because of the three we tried none offered the training class. We called a metro area gun store who only knew of one trainer in the area and they were booked up for months.
That means at this time only those who shoot on a regular basis will bother to jump through the hoops. The rest of us who want to go target shooting every-so-often will probably be better off renting a gun at a shooting range instead. That’s probably the way the DC Government wants it; perhaps that’s the way the majority of DC residents prefer it too.
(The image on this post was altered in accordance with the copyright permissions from Wikimedia Commons)
Tomorrow’s Weather Forecast: Rats
A PQL reader wrote in this morning wanting to talk about rats. The unyielding rain during the past few days seems to have driven every rat in this city out of their home and onto the streets. The area in question is the Center City parking lot and the shrubbery that surrounds the lot. Maybe they need a few of these handy rat rocks? And maybe the former CVS at 7th & H needs a rat rock inside the store because as this blogger walked by yesterday, a giant rat was on display in the window display case. Tomorrow’s weather forecast: more rats.
DC Link Roundup: Heard In The ‘Hood
16th Street/Meridian Hill Park – We drove past Meridian Hill Park on Saturday and heard a bunch of racket. Now we know what it was…a pro-marijuana concert. [New Columbia Heights]
U Street – More detail on the proposed U Street Hotel. [14th and You]
Shaw – A lively discussion envisioning Convention Center retail possibilities. [RenewShaw]
Georgetown – Carol Joynt’s Q & A Cafe books its next guest…the members of Spinal Tap. Rock and roll! [Georgetown Metropolitan]
DC Record Fair This Saturday
The DC Record Fair makes its reappearance this upcoming weekend [PDF] on Saturday, May 9th from 10 am to 4 pm at the Warehouse Next Door (1021 7th Street, NW) in Shaw, the neighborhood to our north. It’s hard to believe but vinyl is making a resurgence in the music scene selling 1.88 million units in 2008, the highest since 2000, and doubling 2007 unit sales. For all the DC natives out there the father of DC go-go, Chuck Brown, will be making a special appearance at the fair. Dig those old Technics turntables out of the closet and dust off those old quadrophonic Neil Diamond LP (long play) albums because vinyl is back.