My Recent trip to Washington, DC

**tdyoung58** · March 15th, 2008, 08:13 AM

You wouldn't believe the crime there, drug addicts, drunks, sex offenders . . . . and that was just in the House of Representatives.

**Big Dog** · March 15th, 2008, 08:34 AM

And now they want to do door to door search and seizure .........

Can they be serious?

WEAPONS OF CHOICE
Searching private homes for guns proposed in D.C.
'Amnesty' offered for illegal weapons, unless investigators link them to crime
Posted: March 13, 2008
10:22 pm Eastern

© 2008 WorldNetDaily

District of Columbia Police Chief Cathy Lanier

The District of Columbia police department is preparing to launch a massive new home-by-home search program to confiscate and destroy handguns, despite arguments pending before the U.S. Supreme Court that challenges the constitutionality of its ban on residents having such weapons.

"Right now we're working under the laws that we have, and we'll continue working under the laws that we have," Police Chief Cathy Lanier said in announcing the program that targets all handguns in the district.

The voluntary program would work like this, according to Traci Hughes, an official with the Metropolitan Police Department: Residents of homes or apartments would contact police and ask them to come and search for such weaponry, they would sign a release, and officers would conduct the search.

She said those who voluntarily contact police would be granted amnesty for any illegal weapons uncovered during the search, although they would not be granted amnesty if those weapons would be traced to any previous crime.

Lanier announced the program, calling it a new anti-violence campaign, during a visit to the DC's 7th District Police headquarters.

Officials estimate authorities already are confiscating and destroying 2,000 handguns annually, but that's not enough.

"For those people who have handguns in their home that become stolen or get out in the street in some other way, a child carries it out and puts it in his backpack and takes it to school, or whatever, worries me," Lanier said in a video posted on WUSA-Television.

The announcement comes just days before the U.S. Supreme Court is to hear arguments that challenge the district's handgun ban as a violation of the Second Amendment.

Lawyers for Dick Anthony Heller, a security guard, sued to overturn Washington's law that prohibits citizens from owning or having handguns. It also imposes severe restrictions on other firearms such as shotguns.

Several other city residents joined in the action, claiming the Second Amendment's individual right to own a gun. A district court judge rejected their claims, but in 2007 a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled the amendment also protects the right of individuals to privately own guns.

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments March 18 in the dispute, in which dozens of outside groups have filed arguments in support of the appellate decision.

The district's perspective is that the Second Amendment only allows people to have guns in connection with service in a militia – not to own guns as an individual. That is the perspective under which Lanier, a graduate in management from Johns Hopkins University, is operating.

Hughes told WND the program is scheduled to launch on March 24, during spring break for District of Columbia public school students, and the goal is to get "more weapons off the streets" by taking them out of closets and off shelves in residents' homes.

"We're hoping that if the custodian of the premises voluntarily allows the police department to search for weapons, we can immediately remove those weapons. We hope it would prevent [it] from being used in other crimes or against other members of the household," she said.

She said attorneys have developed a release form that grants permission for the officers to search, confiscate and destroy weapons and for the resident to be given amnesty for violating the ban on handgun possession.

However, "if it's tied to a crime, then we do have to investigate," she said.

She said there aren't specific plans if the law is overturned. "We've not crossed that bridge," she said.

"I cannot think of a more inappropriate thing to do," Larry Pratt, chief of Gun Owners of America, told WND. "It may very soon be legal [to own handguns in DC]."

"And do they really think that criminals will be inviting them in?" he asked.