The Washington Post and Guns

In an editorial on November 8 ("Targeting D.C. GunLaws"), the Washington Post castigated Congressman Mark Souder for sponsoring an amendment to the District of Columbia appropriations bill that would defund the District law requiring gun owners, who believe in the fundamental right to defend their families with firearms in the home, to store their weapons unloaded and disassembled or bound with a trigger lock. The Post called for the Souder amendment to be thrown out in the conference committee this week so that "the city will be spared the nightmare that is sure to come from loaded and unlocked guns falling into the hands of children."

Even if the D.C. law somehow saved children's lives, the law applies to all gun owners regardless of whether a child lives in the home. I anxiously await the Post's proposal for mandatory locked covers on all swimming pools, which kill many times more children each year.

The Washington Post is undoubtedly relieved that, reportedly, the Souder amendment did not survive the conference committee. Meanwhile, San Francisco has voted to join the District in banning all handguns. The National Rifle Association has responded by filing a lawsuit. Fox News breathlessly proclaimed: "San Francisco voters this week passed what could become the nation's strictest gun ban when they outlawed not only the sale of guns in the city, but required almost everyone who is not a cop, security guard or member of the military to surrender their handguns to police by April 1." This gun ban sounds no more strict than that imposed on District of Columbia residents since 1976.