Washington D.C. Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier announced Thursday that the city will begin to accept applications for gun carry permits next week.
The permit process will be governed by the city's strictest-in-the-nation temporary permit law while the city council works on an even more restrictive permanent law. The current process will leave the decision on who receives a permit up to Lanier, according to the Washington Post.
The measures let D.C. residents who own properly registered handguns, as well as nonresidents with a state carry license, to apply for a permit to bear a concealed weapon in the District.
But both the temporary law and the permanent measure would be among the most restrictive nationwide, giving Lanier the final say on who obtains a permit.
There are a myriad of reasons why an applicant could be denied a permit. Unlike most of the country, D.C. will require applicants to detail why they need a concealed carry permit.
The temporary law now in effect only provides that applicants may carry guns in D.C. if they show "good reason to fear injury to his or her person or property" or "any other proper reason for carrying a pistol."
Lanier said today that living in a dangerous area of DC or being the victim of multiple break-ins would not qualify somebody for a permit.
Rather, Lanier said, for concealed-carry permits "we’re talking about a specific threat to you. If there is a threat, you have been threatened, you are the victim of stalking, you are the victim of domestic violence," she said.
When the law was drafted one city council member told the Washington Times that only a few hundred of the more than 650,000 D.C. residents would qualify for a permit under this process.
Approximately 3,000 residents have registered handguns since the city’s near-total ban on gun ownership was overturned in 2008. Mendelson said he expects somewhere in the realm of "hundreds" of people might be able to get concealed carry permits under the proposed law.
"It’s not going to be a large number, and it’s not going to be soon," he said.
Lanier said he is not satisfied with current regulations, and would prefer the roaming gun free zone, which is the only of its kind in the entire country, to be even more restrictive, according to the Washington Times.
People who carry concealed handguns near public events and demonstrations in the nation’s capital shouldn’t have to be personally warned by a police officer before they are subject to arrest, D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier said Thursday.
The police chief admitted enforcing the mobile gun-free zone may be impractical and argued that armed citizens do not deter criminals.
Lanier conceded that it was difficult to provide advance notice of motorcades carrying dignitaries through city streets and said it was reasonable for gun owners in the vicinity of such events to be personally warned.
The police chief also disputed the claim advanced by some gun-rights advocates that allowing concealed carrying makes communities safer.
"I have seen time and time again, people who are going to commit violent crimes are not deterred by the thought that you might be armed," she said.
Gun rights activists continue a push for a federal court to declare the new gun-carry law an insufficient response to the ruling that declared the city's previous outright ban unconstitutional.