Petition For Reasonable Gun Laws in DC

To:  Washington D.C. City Council and Mayor

We, the residents of the Fourth District of Washington, D.C., respectfully request that our representatives on the City Council of Washington, D.C., including:

Muriel Bowser
Vincent Gray
Carol Schwartz
David Catania
Phil Mendelson
Kwame Brown

Along with our Mayor, Adrian Fenty, now honor our wishes, and the wishes of many law-abiding Washingtonians, and act to support provisions in council legislation that will remove "operability" requirements for any criminal offense involving a firearm, and add reasonable mandatory minimum punishments for repeat felony offenders who use firearms. We also insist that these vital changes be made now.

Recurring gun violence in this city continues unabated. Lives are lost and threatened, and far too many gun criminals repeatedly walk free after being arrested repeatedly for gun possession. The citizens of D.C. deserve to be protected and offenders who continue to disregard the city's gun laws must be adequately punished.

(1) We demand that our representative in city government immediately consider and enact the provisions of the gOmnibus Anti-Crime Amendment Act of 2008, B17-0951, specifically, we demand that our representative enact the bill as written with regard to lines 17-21 on Page 28 and lines 1-14 on Page 29, which is summarized in lines 21-24 or page 2 as: "to increase the penalty for the crime of felon in possession of a firearm to imprisonment for not more than 10 years and a mandatory-minimum term of 2 years, or if the prior felony is a crime of violence to imprisonment for not more than 15 years and a mandatory-minimum of 5 years."

(2) FURTHER, we demand that our representative immediately enact a provision within the Omnibus Act, or separately, that provides a mandatory minimum punishment of, at least, 180 days for any felony possession of a firearm, regardless of prior felony history (2nd or subsequent possession offense). D.C. Code Section 22-4504(a)(2) should be amended to reflect that subsequent offenses require a mandatory minimum regardless of other criminal history.

(3) FURTHER, we demand that our representative enact, in total, the "Inoperable Pistol Amendment Act of 2008", B17-0593, which includes the following language: "it is not necessary for the government to prove that a
pistol is operable."

These are all reasonable provisions designed to protect the citizens of the city and fairly punish offenders who repeatedly violate the laws and endanger their fellow citizens with firearms.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

The Petition For Reasonable Gun Laws in DC Petition to Washington D.C. City Council and Mayor was created by Citizens of Washington, D.C. and written by Eric Morehead (moreheaderic@gmail.com).  This petition is hosted here at www.PetitionOnline.com as a public service. There is no endorsement of this petition, express or implied, by Artifice, Inc. or our sponsors. For technical support please use our simple Petition Help form.