Potential presidential candidate Sen. Marco Rubio has angered Democrats in the District of Columbia by introducing a bill to reverse tough gun laws in the city.
The Florida Republican claims that the current regulations violate the Second Amendment by preventing law-abiding citizens from owning and carrying firearms,
according to The Washington Times.
"For years, the District of Columbia has infringed on its residents' Second Amendment rights and rendered them vulnerable to criminals who could care less what the gun laws are," said Rubio.
"This legislation will finally allow D.C.'s law-abiding residents and visitors access to firearms for sporting, or lawful defense of themselves and their homes, businesses and families."
Rubio's bill, the Second Amendment Enforcement Act of 2015, would ease restrictions on Washington, D.C., firearms purchases and bar the D.C. City Council from enacting further gun control measures.
The changes include getting rid of gun registration requirements, revoking the ban on semi-automatic firearms, and launching a so-called "shall issue" permit process for concealed carry licenses, the Times said, noting that Ohio GOP Rep. Jim Jordan introduced similar legislation in the House on Thursday.
"Federal courts have repeatedly found provisions of the gun control laws of the District of Columbia to be unconstitutional," Rubio's proposal says.
"Despite these reproofs, district officials have repeatedly and publicly asserted their determination to continue passing laws aimed at curbing the exercise of the right to keep and bear arms by law-abiding residents and visitors."
D.C. lawmakers slammed the bills, saying they endanger the safety of the area's citizens, the Times reported.
"This proposal is reckless and disregards our country's national security," said D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson, a Democrat. "All that would remain to protect the public leaders and citizens from gun violence is federal law, and federal law has proven to be inadequate."
Democratic Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, the district's nonvoting representative in Congress, accused Rubio of political posturing by introducing what she said is dangerous legislation.
"It should shock no one that Sen. Rubio, who is widely expected to soon announce a run for president, would try to raise his national profile and conservative bona fides, but they should be shocked to hear that he would try to use our local jurisdiction and laws to violate his own support for the principle of local control," said Holmes.
The city's sweeping restrictions on gun ownership were struck down by the Supreme Court in 2008. But the City Council was still able to enforce a measure that only allowed residents to possess firearms in their homes, the Times stated.
Later, a federal judge ruled that the D.C.'s ban on the concealed carry of firearms is also unconstitutional. However, last year the Council passed a bill allowing residents to apply for concealed carry permits in public if they demonstrate a "good reason" to do so.
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