272
edits
Changes
→Constitutional and Legal Issues: added paragraph describing how the present government of D.C. was established.
==Constitutional and Legal Issues==
==Constitutional and Legal Issues==
Article I of the Constitution specifies that [[Congress]] has exclusive legislative jurisdiction over the District of Columbia.<ref>http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/constitution.articlei.html#section8</ref> In 1973, Congress passed the District of Columbia Self-Government and Governmental Reorganization Act, [[P.L.]] 93-198 which proposed a charter that delegated legislative authority to a locally-elected [[mayor]] and [[Council of the District of Columbia|council]]; the charter was approved by local referendum in 1974.<ref>http://government.westlaw.com/linkedslice/default.asp?rs=gvt1.0&vr=2.0&sp=dcc-1000</ref><ref>http://www.narpac.org/ITXICE.HTM</ref>
On March 9, 2007, a [[U.S. Court of Appeals]] struck down Washington, D.C.'s ban on private [[handgun]] possession as an infringement on the [[Second Amendment]], which guarantees the right of individual citizens to keep and bear firearms. The sole dissenting judge dissented because she held that the District of Columbia is not a [[state]] and therefore the [[Second Amendment]] does not apply within the District of Columbia. Washington, D.C.'s handgun ban was one of the most restrictive [[gun control]] laws in the nation. <ref>http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=topNews&storyid=2007-03-09T223851Z_01_N09246717_RTRUKOC_0_US-USA-GUNS-RULING.xml&src=rss</ref>
On March 9, 2007, a [[U.S. Court of Appeals]] struck down Washington, D.C.'s ban on private [[handgun]] possession as an infringement on the [[Second Amendment]], which guarantees the right of individual citizens to keep and bear firearms. The sole dissenting judge dissented because she held that the District of Columbia is not a [[state]] and therefore the [[Second Amendment]] does not apply within the District of Columbia. Washington, D.C.'s handgun ban was one of the most restrictive [[gun control]] laws in the nation. <ref>http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=topNews&storyid=2007-03-09T223851Z_01_N09246717_RTRUKOC_0_US-USA-GUNS-RULING.xml&src=rss</ref>