It's been 17 years since the seminal SCOTUS case of Heller vs. District of Columbia ruled that the Second Amendment was an individual rather than collective right, even in the nation's capitol - which had long been one of the nation's least gun-friendly jurisdictions.
It's been 15 years since MacDonald Vs. Chicago - another infamously anti-gun jurisdiction - which incorporated that precedent onto the states via the 14th Amendment.
And yet the District held out. In 2012, Emily Miller - an editor at the Washington Times - started trying to buy a firearm for self-defense, after a harrowing encounter with home invaders in a tony DC neighborhood.
I was alone in an empty house with a useless dog. I spent the night in the master bedroom with a dresser pushed up against the inside of the door. I didn’t sleep much. I kept thinking how safer I would feel if I had a gun next to the bed.
The next day, I took to Twitter to ask about how to get a gun. The replies were disappointing: “No 2nd amend in D.C.” “Only one guy can sell weapons in DC- good luck with that.” “Call the NRA.” I knew that the Supreme Court had recently overturned the Washington’s gun ban, so I didn’t understand why gun owners were so down on my idea. My friends came back the next day, but I sill wondered why I couldn’t get a gun.
The following summer, D.C. mayoral candidate and then-city council Chairman Vincent Gray was at my neighborhood picnic. I approached Mr. Gray as he was glad-handing in the basketball courts and told him that I wanted two things: to stop the parking ticket assault in this city and a gun.
His smile faded. “A what?” he asked, leaning down to hear me.
“A GUN. I want a gun.” I said emphatically. “I don’t know what’s going on in this city, but apparently no one is listening to the Supreme Court.”
“Well, um, Emily is it? Let me introduce you to my campaign chairman,” Mr. Gray said, leading me away toward a guy with a clipboard. That would be the politician’s equivalent of “talk to the hand.” Mr. Gray went on to be elected mayor of D.C.
Her initial attempts were an exercise in sisyphean frustration. Miller got enough material from the situation to write first a knuckle-bitingly frustrating-to-read series, and finally a fairly essential book on the subject.
So 14 years have passed. How are gun rights doing in the nation's capitol?
Well, a little bit of this and a little bit of that, apparently.
Earlier in the administration, President Trump created a task force to fast track the permit process in the Federal district - where appointments to start the the process were taking four months to get.
There's been...some improvement:
D.C. now offers next-day appointments on the Metropolitan Police Department’s website, cutting wait times that reportedly could last at least four months to be photographed and fingerprinted.
The visit also entails submitting paperwork to prove the applicant completed a 16-hour gun safety class and two hours at the range.
But "blue" government's gonna blue govern:
However, the District has imposed site restrictions on where permit holders can carry firearms, a vast expanse of the city that includes federal properties blanketing downtown. This prevents people with concealed carry permits from carrying a handgun where most people work, park their cars or traverse on an average day in the District’s downtown.
These zones - called "felony traps" by 2nd-amendment rights attorneys, as they largely exist to make unwitting felons out of otherwise law-abiding people - are one of the lower forms of government passive-aggression; "OK, have your stupid gun. You just can't legally use it anywhere!"
Which is how the battle for gun rights always goes in Blue hideouts: a few big wins in court, and a whole lot of legislative and administrative hacking away at procedures and attitudes.
