Gun meddling

baltimoresun.com - Gun meddling: "IN 1993, when Kay Bailey Hutchison moved to Washington, D.C., after being elected to the U.S. Senate from Texas, she had a problem with her .357 Magnum. In order to comply with the District's ban on handguns, she had to dismantle the gun she would have kept by her bedside, buy a travel case for it and then return it to her home state. Now she's fighting back with an ill-considered campaign to repeal the 1976 law. She and other members of Congress should pause a moment and rethink these attempts to undercut the District's crime-fighting efforts and its independence under home rule.

Like Baltimore, Washington has had a persistently high murder rate. The 1976 law, approved by the City Council and considered one of the most restrictive in the nation, bans residents from owning handguns, with a few exceptions, although rifles and shotguns are allowed. Even with the stiff restriction, the D.C. Police Department confiscates about 2,000 guns a year from the streets."