Academic

GETTING A GUN IN D.C.: ?It took $833.69, a total of 15 hours 50 minutes, four trips to the Metropol?

By Glenn Reynolds

GETTING A GUN IN D.C.: “It took $833.69, a total of 15 hours 50 minutes, four trips to the Metropolitan Police Department, two background checks, a set of fingerprints, a five-hour class and a 20-question multiple-choice exam. Oh, and the votes of five Supreme Court justices. They’re the ones who really made it possible for me, as a District resident, to own a handgun, a constitutional right as heavily debated and rigorously parsed as the freedoms of speech and religion.” Most other constitutional rights don’t involve so many government barriers, or such open hostility from the government officials who, theoretically, should be protecting them, not trying to kill them.

UPDATE: A couple of readers wonder when we’ll see news stories expressing concern that firearms ownership in D.C. is reserved for the rich.

Full post as published by Instapundit.com on September 03, 2009 (boomark / email).