WASHINGTON, June 28 — If District of Columbia officials persist in their attempt to thwart revision of D.C. gun laws, Congress ought to consider recision of D.C. home rule, John Michael Snyder, public affairs director of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA), suggested today in a statement submitted to the House Committee on Government Reform.

Snyder submitted the statement in connection with the House Committee’s oversight hearing today on D.C. gun laws.

CCRKBA supports the proposed District of Columbia Personal Protection Act, introduced in the House of Representatives by Rep. Mark Souder of Indiana and in the Senate by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas. The proposed Act would repeal the District’s restrictive gun laws, including one that prohibits acquisition of handguns by private citizens.

Snyder said the proposed Act “certainly would go a long way to remove an intolerable burden placed on law-abiding D.C. residents by the District of Columbia government. The whole D.C. system has allowed violent criminals to run rampant, knowing they can’t be stopped by law-abiding citizens. How many high-profile unsolved homicides of young women such as those of Joyce Chang and Chandra Levy do we have to cite to show that local government just does not have what it takes to provide a secure environment?”

Snyder stated that, “as common sense would seem to indicate to any clear-headed individual, and as scholarly studies, such as those conducted by John Lott of the American Enterprise Institute, and Gary Kleck of Florida State University, demonstrate firearms, including handguns, in the possession of law-abiding citizens, are a deterrent to violent criminal activity.”

While a number of local officials argue that adoption of the proposed Act would be an infringement on local home rule, said Snyder, “this ignores the fact that the District of Columbia is a special constitutional entity. It is the Capital of the United States of America. As such, it is the city of the country, not just the playground of officials so incompetent that proliferating potholes in District streets make the city resemble more the burg of a third-world country than the Capital of the Free World.”