Zoning Out Guns

Just because the D.C. handgun ban has been overturned doesn’t mean you will ever be able to buy one in Washington. The reason? Zoning. This from the Wall Street Journal:

Washington has no federally licensed gun stores, so nowhere in the city can residents buy a handgun legally. Under federal law, buying one in neighboring Maryland or Virginia isn’t an option either. If gun dealers sell a firearm to a nonresident, they have to ship it to a licensed dealer in the purchaser’s home state, which then conducts the relevant background checks. “Without a dealer, there’s no place to ship the gun to,” said Mike Campbell, a spokesman for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

It is unlikely that Washington will get any new dealers, either. Federal licensing requirements mandate that would-be dealers meet local guidelines and zoning ordinances. Representatives of each of the district’s eight council wards said they would vigorously oppose a gun shop in their area. They also said discussions had already begun over which regulations they might use to keep one from opening.

This approach has been used successfully elsewhere – as of 2005 Minneapolis only had one store, and Washington has already largely eradicated nude strip clubs through onerous zoning requirements:

While the license allows an owner to open a club with nude dancing anywhere in the city that has commercial zoning, a club must sit at least 600 feet away from any schools, community centers and housing. Community members can protest the opening of such a club, and it must get approval from the District’s Alcoholic Beverage Control Board.

The only problem? As of now, D.C. Zoning Code says nothing about gun shops. Another issue to throw into the mix over in the D.C. zoning update

Author: Rob Goodspeed

Comments

  1. Pingback: SayUncle » Guns in DC

  2. Pingback: Vox Populi » DC gun purchases will remain difficult

  3. Buy your guns at the Smithsonian Shops. You won’t even have to pay DC sales tax!

    The Chancellor of the Smithsonian Institution’s Board of Regents is the Honorable John G. Roberts, Jr., 17th chief justice of the United States.

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  5. I am sure that with Heller, if DC does not have an avenue for which DC residence can get a legal gun the court will ensure they develop one.

  6. Am I the only one that things the strip club zoning is ridiculous? Sure, don’t open gun shops. But strip clubs? Restrictions on alcohol sales? Makes us seem like some podunk town in blue-law era South.

    That urbanist mecca that is Portland has more strip-clubs per capita than any city in the country. And full nudity, even with alcohol sales. No pasties required. Portland folks. It’s the goodiest two-shoes city around. DC used to be a city to have a good time in. Now it feels like an overly restrictive college campus. Is it any wonder that people over 26 seem to move out? This town doesn’t cater to adult tastes. Unless your idea of adult is lukewarm museums and lectures by policy wonks. That’s my idea of retirement. Someone else’s retirement.

  7. “The only problem? As of now, D.C. Zoning Code says nothing about gun shops. Another issue to throw into the mix over in the D.C. zoning update …”

    Oh, Rob, I fail to see how this is a problem.

    This, however, I believe, is:

    “It is unlikely that Washington will get any new dealers, either. Federal licensing requirements mandate that would-be dealers meet local guidelines and zoning ordinances. Representatives of each of the district’s eight council wards said they would vigorously oppose a gun shop in their area.”

    These, of course, are the same council representatives of a city that, of late, has taken Draconian measures, opposed by the ACLU, to try to decrease the painfully high crime levels. Counter-intuitive, to me, it seems, to grant the nanny state more powers, to the detriment of Constitutional rights (Fourth Amendment, perhaps), whilst fighting actively to deny Second Amendment rights that might help to alleviate crime problems, or, at least, to protect decent citizens from the perpetrators of such heinous acts.

  8. Pingback: Guns, D.C. (crime), Police power, and the Constitution « Nathancontramundi

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