No doubt this is an attempt to head off H.R.6691:
On the most significant day of legislative activity since the Supreme Court struck down the city’s 32-year-old handgun ban in a landmark Second Amendment decision June 26, the council unanimously passed emergency legislation to end safe-storage requirements for firearms and to permit ownership of semiautomatic pistols.
Except these are only temporary, while they work on the real solution, which is coming along any day now, you see. We still need Congress to fix this problem. Pretty obviously they can pass reforms if they want to, the problem is, they don’t want to.
Another point is that one thing the DC council can’t fix, even if it wanted to (and it obviously doesn’t), is the fact that DC residents can’t buy handguns outside of DC–that change would have to be made federally (I’m pretty sure).
…and still no semi-auto rifles.
Congress needs to act. But they won’t, because there is no way in Hades that Harry Reid will put Obama in a position where he’ll have to make a gun control vote before the election. Will. Not. Happen.
HR6691 is nothing but a transparent ploy to allow blue-dog House Dems to gain a little pro-gun street cred before the election. Nancy Pelosi would never let a pro-gun measure get anywhere near the floor if she thought for even one nanosecond that it might actually become law. The very thought is preposterous.
The ironic thing is that DC is cowering now. Why? This congress isn’t going to actually DO anything! Only if the Dems lose big, will DC’s Brady sycophants have anything to actually worry about.