3/29/07 Sen. Hutchinson: Pull Down Your Bill To Repeal The DC Gun Ban

Gun Lobby To Sen. Hutchinson: Pull Down Your Bill To Repeal The DC Gun Ban

For Immediate Release
March 29, 2007
Contact: Eddie Isler or Ellie McDaniel
703-321-8585

“Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson’s bill to overturn the DC gun ban is the right idea at the wrong time,” said Larry Pratt, Executive Director of Gun Owners of America.

Pratt echoed the sentiments of the lead counsel, Alan Gura, in the Parker v. D.C. case that resulted in overturning the DC gun ban in the federal DC Court of Appeals. In an interview with Pratt, Gura warned that: “A congressional repeal of the D.C. gun ban right now could erase the recent court victory which ruled that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to keep and bear arms.”

Gura points out that: “If the D.C. gun ban is repealed before the appellate process is completed, Parker will be vacated and dismissed. It will have no precedential value. Whenever the Supreme Court might consider the Second Amendment in the future, it would likely be a criminal’s case, not the upstanding plaintiffs in the Parker case who have been harmed by the DC ban.”

Gura added: “If Hutchinson’s bill were to pass, all of our hard work would be wasted.”

Pratt said that GOA is encouraged by Gura’s report that the NRA shares his concern about Hutchinson’s bill. Gura says that the NRA has “given us their assurances that they are not interested in ruining the case. And Wayne LaPierre, NRA’s Executive Vice-President, told me I can take that to the bank.”

Gun Owners of America is working on a D.C. gun ban bill that will enable Congress to implement rather than destroy Parker. “So, GOA is asking Senators not to support the Hutchinson bill at this time,” Pratt concluded.

— GOA —