Press Releases

Washington, DC The Children's Defense Fund (CDF) expressed outrage at the U.S. House of Representatives today for passing a bill that would repeal the gun safety laws of Washington, D.C., even as children continue dying from gunfire on the city's streets. Sponsors of the legislation seek to end the District of Columbia's 28-year-old ban on handguns, its prohibition on assault weapons, and registration requirements for rifles and shot guns. The vote was 250 to 171. The gun ban was enacted by locally elected officials in 1976 and has enjoyed strong citywide support ever since.

"Our nation's capital has seen 21 children killed by gun violence this year, yet the House would endanger even more children with this action," said Marian Wright Edelman, President of CDF. "This measure is a wanton display of political grandstanding that is nothing more than an election season sop to the National Rifle Association. The NRA wants to dump more guns on the already violent streets of D.C., and that will put even more children at risk in a nation that loses nearly 3,000 children a year to gun violence."

This House vote today comes after the Congress and President Bush took no action to extend the 10-year-old nationwide federal ban on assault weapons. By failing to renew the ban before the Sept. 13 expiration date, elected officials opened the way for semi-automatic, military-style weapons to be manufactured and sold in America again.

Today's vote was instigated by Mark Souder (R-Ind.). D.C.'s delegate to Congress, Eleanor Holmes Norton, could do nothing to stop it because the District of Columbia has no vote in Congress. Norton, D.C. Mayor Anthony A. Williams, the city's police chief, and elected members of the D.C. Council were incensed by the bill. Williams called it the "height of hypocrisy" for Representatives to strip away popular public safety protections in the District even though they would never consider intervening in such matters anywhere else.

By wiping the District of Columbia's common-sense gun safety laws off the books and allowing the federal assault weapons ban to end, those who will suffer the most will be children, said Edelman. "It's long past the time to start protecting children more than guns," she said.

# # #

The mission of the Children's Defense Fund is to Leave No Child Behind and to ensure every child a Healthy Start, a Head Start, a Fair Start, a Safe Start, and a Moral Start in life and successful passage to adulthood with the help of caring families and communities. CDF provides a strong, effective voice for all the children of America who cannot vote, lobby, or speak for themselves. We pay particular attention to the needs of poor and minority children and those with disabilities. CDF educates the nation about the needs of children and encourages preventive investment before they get sick, into trouble, drop out of school, or suffer family breakdown. CDF began in 1973 and is a private, nonprofit organization supported by foundation and corporate grants and individual donations. We have never taken government funds.