Another Amendment

As noted above, that darned old constitution just keeps letting people talk even when politicians with they would shut the hell up. Well somebody has discovered another Constitutional amendment that deserves respect, the second.

Washington, DC "passed an almost complete ban on the ownership of firearms, leaving me with no real means to defend my home or property. On Wednesday, the House will vote on a bill to restore to the residents of the District of Columbia the right to defend themselves.

The citywide gun ban is one of the country's strictest, requiring even the few rifles and shotguns that are allowed be disassembled, unloaded and locked up. But because of the district's status as a federal enclave, the Constitution gives Congress the ultimate authority over what laws govern it. Congress usually doesn't countermand laws passed by the district's elected government, but the gun ban not only blatantly defies the Second Amendment but has also proved to be a manifest failure.

Preventing law-abiding people from owning guns in their homes (there is no talk of allowing residents the right to carry concealed handguns) has done nothing to reduce crime, which has skyrocketed in part due to police mismanagement and corruption. In the five years after the ban took effect in 1976, the murder rate rose to 35 per 100,000 people from 27. In fact, in the three decades since the ban took effect, the annual murder rate has only once fallen below what it was in 1976. In 2002 the murder rate hit 46 per 100,000 people. Robbery rates have also risen dramatically."