D.C. gun bill reintroduced

Senate Republicans yesterday reintroduced their bill to roll back the District of Columbia’s gun ban, capping a week of heightened focus on constitutional rights and personal protection in the capital.

The Senate measure has appeared in the last three Congresses, but this week’s version comes in the wake of the arrest of an aide to Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) on handgun possession charges as well as a GOP motion to repeal the gun ban that threatened to split the majority and torpedo the District’s voting-rights bill.

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), chief sponsor of the gun-ban repeal bill, said her timing was inspired by a third propitious event.

“What spurred my timing was the court opinion,” Hutchison said, referring to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals’s March 9 ruling to strike down the ban, which the city is appealing. “I thought the court was right-on … it is a violation of individual rights.”

The measure’s 41 cosponsors include two Democrats, Sens. Ben Nelson (Neb.) and Max Baucus (Mont.). Webb has not signed on, although he said at a Tuesday press conference on his aide’s arrest that he is “a strong supporter of the Second Amendment” and declined to address directly whether he personally follows the gun ban.

Hutchison said she would “love to have [Webb] as a cosponsor.” Webb’s office did not have further comment on the gun ban measure.