The Washington Post has an interesting article on what's happened to D.C. since the city's gun ban was overturned. Namely, new registered gun purchases have been concentrated in wealthy neighborhoods, because guns are expensive:
Since the landmark court ruling in June 2008, records show, more than 1,400 firearms have been registered with D.C. police, most in the western half of the District. Among those guns, nearly 300 are in the high-income, low-crime Georgetown, Palisades and Chevy Chase areas of Northwest.
In all of the neighborhoods east of the Anacostia River -- a broad swath of the city with more than 52,000 households, many of them in areas beset by poverty and drug-related violence -- about 240 guns have been registered.
Due to D.C.'s proximity to Virginia, the city's handgun ban was largely useless, and I think it's fair to read into the Second Amendment the right to have a gun at home to protect yourself or your family from intruders. I still think it's interesting that the people who have rushed to purchase guns are concentrated in these three neighborhoods, believing that the geographic and logistical barriers already in place aren't enough to protect them from the "riff-raff" in the rest of the city.
I also think it's interesting because with most rights-based issues liberals focus on, a big part of it is based on expanding access to people who face financial barriers to exercising their rights. There doesn't seem to be a big push by gun-rights advocates to make guns more affordable or accessible to the city's poorer residents, for some reason.
