Dodge City?
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

A shootout, so to speak, is erupting over a measure moving through the Congress called the District of Columbia Personal Protection Act. The bipartisan bill, introduced by Rep. Mark Souder, a Republican of Indiana, and Rep. Michael Ross, a Democrat of Arkansas, would allow Washington, D.C., residents to own handguns – just like their neighbors in Virginia.
This prompted the New York Times to predict that the law “would make D.C. stand for Dodge City” and condemn Washingtonians to a “lethal urban reality.” Yet this is already a reality in a city that is not only the political capital of the country but also its murder capital. It has the highest murder rate of any large city in America, according to particulars released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 2003.
What is striking about Washington is that it has not only the highest murder rate in America but also the most restrictive gun control laws. It maintains a total ban on handguns. More remarkable is the fact that from the time the gun ban went into effect a generation ago, in 1976, the district’s homicide rate has soared 200%, according to Mr. Souder. “No one can argue this law’s effectiveness,” he told the Washington Post. “For the 14th time in 15 years, they have the murder capital of the world title. At some point you say, ‘This isn’t working.'”
The handgun ban actually arrested progress. In the five years before 1976, the murder rate in the district fell to 27 from 37 per 100,000, according to researchers at the American Enterprise Institute. Five years after the ban, murders had climbed back to 35 for each 100,000 residents.
Despite the failure of Washington’s gun-control regime, the Times editorialists maunder about how Congress won’t “protect the city’s right to defend itself.” But listen to Washington residents who have faced intruders in their homes. We spoke to one such D.C. resident, a publisher’s representative named Truby Chiaviello. “The fact is, if you have an intruder come to your home, there is nothing you can do to protect yourself except wait for the police,” he told us. Three months ago, in the middle of the night, Mr. Chiaviello caught someone trying to break into his house. “D.C. law says one cannot possess a handgun, pepper spray or any ‘dangerous weapon.’ When it came time to defend my family and home, I did the only thing a man could do in this city: I just stared and waited,” he wrote in the Washington Post.
It is irresponsible for Congress to leave a citizen in this situation. The ban on guns hasn’t disarmed violent criminals, but has succeeded in compromising the ability of law-abiding citizens to defend themselves. Nothing is without risk in this world, but based on the surrounding states and cities, there’s no evidence that ending the gun ban would turn Washington into Dodge City. The bet Congress is being asked to make is that it will start turning the crime rate back down. Given the extraordinary peaceable record of the Virginians who are allowed to own and carry weapons, it strikes us as a good bet. If Congress passes this bill, New Yorkers will then be asking why they should be second-class citizens under the Second Amendment.