District of Columbia Personal Protection Act

Bill: 109-s-1082
Sponsor: Sen. Hutchison, Kay Bailey [R-TX]
Introduced: 2005-05-19 in the Senate
Policy area: Crime and Law Enforcement
Subjects: Ammunition
Animals
Armed Forces and National Security
Assault weapons
Civil Rights and Liberties, Minority Issues
District of Columbia
Exhibitions
Fines (Penalties)
Firearms
Firearms control
Government Operations and Politics
Hunting
Law
Licenses
Local laws
Machine guns
Military weapons
Municipal home rule
Sentences (Criminal procedure)
Sports and Recreation
Trapping

Summary:
action_date: 2005-05-19
text: 
District of Columbia Personal Protection Act - Amends specified law prohibiting the killing of wild birds and wild animals in the District of Columbia to declare that nothing in it or any other provision of law shall authorize or be construed to permit the Council, the Mayor, or any governmental or regulatory authority of the District to prohibit, constructively prohibit, or unduly burden the ability of persons otherwise not prohibited from possessing firearms under Federal law from acquiring, possessing in their homes or businesses, or using for sporting, self-protection or other lawful purposes, any firearm neither prohibited by Federal law nor subject to the National Firearms Act. Denies the District any authority to enact laws or regulations that discourage or eliminate the private ownership or use of firearms.
 
Amends the Firearms Control Regulations Act of 1975 to repeal the definition of a machine gun as any firearm which shoots, is designed to shoot, or can be readily converted or restored to shoot semiautomatically, more than 12 shots without manual reloading. (Thus repeals the ban on semiautomatic weapons.)
 
 Redefines &quot;machine gun&quot; to include the frame or receiver of any such weapon, any part designed and intended solely and exclusively, or combination of parts designed and intended, for use in converting a weapon into a machine gun, and any combination of parts from which a machine gun can be assembled if such parts are in the possession or under the control of a person.
 
Repeals the District's: (1) registration requirement for possession of firearms; (2) prohibition on possession of handgun restricted pistol bullets; and (3) requirement that, under certain conditions, firearms in the possession of certain individuals must be kept unloaded, disassembled, or with the trigger locked.
 
Repeals the definition of restricted pistol bullet as any bullet designed for use in a pistol which, when fired from a pistol with a barrel of five inches or less in length, is capable of penetrating commercially available body armor with a penetration resistance equal to or greater than that of 18 layers of kevlar.
 
Maintains the current ban on the possession and control of a sawed-off shotgun, machine gun, or short-barreled rifle.
 
Eliminates criminal penalties for possessing an unregistered firearm.
 
Amends Federal law to eliminate criminal penalties for carrying a pistol whether loaded or unloaded in one's dwelling house, place of business, or on land possessed by such person.
 
Amends the District of Columbia Code to extend to firearms generally (currently, only to pistols) the prohibition against carrying such a weapon either openly or concealed within the District without a license issued pursuant to D.C. law.
 
Specifies exceptions to the prohibition against carrying concealed weapons in the District.


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2005-06-09
text: Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs referred to Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce,  and the District of Columbia.
action_date: 2005-05-19
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
action_date: 2005-05-19
text: Introduced in Senate