DC Vote Responds to Attacks on DC's Local Democracy

August 7, 2009

Washington, DC - DC Vote will travel to Mississippi next week, August 10-12. In response to attacks on DC's local democracy, staff will meet with individuals and organizations to discuss efforts by Representative Travis Childers (D-MS) to repeal DC's gun control laws and remove all local control of the issue in the future.

Rep. Childers introduced a bill last fall that virtually eliminated DC's gun control laws. The bill passed the House but was not the Senate in 2008. In the current Congress, Senator John Ensign (R-NV) used the Childers Bill as an amendment to the DC Voting Rights Act (H.R.157/S.160). This bill, which would give DC a voting representative in the House, is currently stalled due to threats of the gun control amendment. Ilir Zherka, DC Vote Executive Director, emphasized that the Childers Bill is not only dangerous but unnecessary.

"The locally-elected DC government has responded quickly and appropriately to rewrite the District's gun laws," he said. "DC now has permanent gun laws in place that are similar to several other states. This amendment is absolutely unnecessary."

"The people we met in Mississippi understood that DC voting rights are a crucial civil rights issue," said Zherka. "They are willing to stand up and say that 'DC deserves the same right to make their own laws that we currently enjoy.'"

DC Vote—dedicated to full congressional voting representation and full democracy for Washington, DC—will also run ads in the state urging Mississippi residents to support DC's right to democracy.

• What: DC Vote Travels to Mississippi to meet with key constituencies, including local labor and civil rights organizations.
  
  
• When: August 10-12
  
  
• Where: August 10, Tupelo, MS; August 11-12: Hernando, MS
  
  
• Who: Ilir Zherka, DC Vote Executive Director; Eugene D. Kinlow, DC Vote Public Affairs Director

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