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Gun control still in force, chief says

Semiautomatics banned

By Gary Emerling (Contact) | Saturday, June 28, 2008

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The Supreme Court decision overturning the District's handgun ban won't trigger an open season for guns, Metropolitan Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier said Friday, because D.C. law still bans all semiautomatic weapons — such as the common 9 mm pistols used by police and the military.

But the D.C. ordinance — which, like the overall handgun ban, is among the strictest in the country - could be next in gun rights advocates' cross hairs.

"I can't say right now what we'll do legally, but there's definitely a problem with this law," said Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president of the National Rifle Association (NRA), during an exclusive online live chat with The Washington Times Friday morning.

Chief Lanier, responding to online questions in her own live chat noted that, "Automatic and semiautomatic handguns generally remain illegal ... and the Supreme Court's ruling is limited to handguns in the home only and does not allow them to be carried outside the home."

Meanwhile, the NRA filed lawsuits Friday in San Francisco and Chicago against their gun bans.

The D.C. semiautomatic weapon ban applies to any firearm capable of carrying 12 rounds or more. In effect, that restricts purchasers of modern handguns to revolvers -- such as the .38 Special or its powerful successor, the .357 Magnum -- which typically carry five or six rounds at a time and cannot be modified to hold more.

Most other handguns are outlawed, even though most are designed for magazines that carry 10 rounds or less, because they could carry more rounds with modified magazines. Weapons capable of holding such magazines are illegal "machine guns" under D.C. law.

"It doesn't matter if the gun owner actually has a magazine that size — all it takes is for one to exist somewhere," Mr. LaPierre said, outlining his organization's continued opposition to aspects of D.C. law.

The NRA supports a bill proposed in March 2007 by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson, Texas Republican, that would redefine a machine gun as a weapon that is designed or could be modified to shoot multiple rounds with one squeeze of the trigger, Mr. LaPierre said. Forty-five senators co-sponsored the measure, although its chances of passage are considered slim.

D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, a Democrat, said she thinks the court's ruling leaves room for effective restrictions on the sale and registration of handguns in the District. She said she would fight any federal legislation to ease gun controls.