District begins licensing pistols

The first handgun registered in the District after the city’s 32-year ban was a Ruger .357 Magnum that arrived Thursday in blue plastic grocery bag.

The gun was brought to the Metropolitan Police Department’s Firearm Registration Section, in Northwest, shortly after 1 p.m., by a woman from Northwest who asked to be identified only as Amy.

The woman, a third-generation D.C. resident and a mother, told The Washington Times that she strolled past reporters assembled in the lobby and brought the bag to a security guard.

“There’s a revolver in this bag,” the woman said she told the security guard. She said the guard then asked her to repeat herself, so she said again, “There’s a revolver in this bag.”

The woman said officers escorted her inside the building and administered a written test, fingerprinted her and removed her gun for test firing.

“I wanted to register as soon as possible, but I waited until later in the day to avoid the rush,” said the woman, who said the gun was a gift from about six years ago and that she had stored it outside the District.

She was the only one of the 58 applicants to complete the process, including a ballistics test on the gun.

Among the first to arrive when the doors opened at 7 a.m. was Dick Anthony Heller, 66, who was the responder in the case District of Columbia v. Heller. However, Mr. Heller, was told be could not register his 45-caliber semiautomatic Colt Model 1911 because it is still illegal under D.C. law. He couldn’t register a second gun, a revolver, because he didn’t bring the weapon with him.

“Now I’m disappointed,” said Mr. Heller, a security guard. “I’ve been denied again.”

Mr. Heller said he will try to register a nine-shot .22-caliber Harrington and Richardson revolver Friday.

The Supreme Court ruled June 26 in the case that the city’s ban on handguns was unconstitutional and that residents should be allowed to keep the guns in their homes for personal protection.

City officials began rewriting the laws immediately after the decision. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty proposed legislation Monday, which the City Council ratified Tuesday evening. The legislation will be in effect for 90 days so city officials can study its effectiveness.

In addition to the issue of semiautomatic weapons, most of which that can fire 12 or more rounds without reloading, residents and pro-gun groups also are taking issue with the section of the city legislation that states handguns have to be stored inside the home unloaded and with a trigger lock until “a reasonable, perceived threat of immediate harm.”

Dane Von Breichenruchardt, president of the District-based Bill of Rights Foundation, on behalf of Mr. Heller, criticized the city’s policy against semiautomatic guns, which it considers to be machine guns because most are capable of shooting 12 or more rounds without being reloaded.

Mr. Von Breichenruchardt said Mr. Fenty, a Democrat, “promised he’d follow the letter and the spirit of the law [but] he has done neither.”

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