Here is a map of where a gun shop can open a retail store in DC. I agree that it isn’t a lot of places, and the major parts downtown would probably be simply affordable for a store that just won’t do a whole lot of business. But the various areas in the northeast part of town – the swath extending mostly to the east of the center of the city, and the little bits up in the far northeast near the border – would probably be pretty good locations for a gun store, because rents are low and transportation access is relatively good. In fact, that finger of purple on the east is pretty much where everyone goes to buy fireworks around Fourth of July.
I say this to concede that DC’s doors are not wide open to gun shops, but it isn’t accurate to say that “DC zoning laws do not permit a gun seller to open a place of business in DC.” The NRA-ILA must have misled you.
They did – when Emily Miller began to navigate the system, there was a four-hour classroom training requirement. That has now been replaced by an online test. Ravenman offers the current list in the same thread in which he excoriates Miller for her complaints but fails to make clear that many of her complaints arose from a requirement that existed when she wrote her columns but no longer does now.
Sure it’s accurate. Those purple areas are zoned C-3-C. That means that they’re the only areas in which it’s even possible to have a firearms retail establishment. But even then, § 746.1 provides that a firearms retail establishment or firearm retail sales as an accessory use are permitted in C-3-C District only as a special exception and only if approved by the Board of Zoning Adjustment under § 3104.
In other words, you cannot set up a gun store unless the Board approves your specific application as a “special exception.”
And, shockingly, the Board never does.
So what I said was accurate: DC zoning laws do not permit a gun seller to open a place of business in DC.
To the contrary, I’ve made clear that Miller’s complaints are outdated AND I’ve said that Miller approached all of her experiences with the same attitude as a five year old who was told to eat some broccoli: foot-dragging, eye-rolling, feigned incompetence, and whining that the world is unfair to her.
And I’ll gladly eat crow if you can provide some cites that the zoning board rejects all variances requested for gun stores.
I don’t dispute that. She makes a point of relaying how she gets a “hard look,” at one point during her journey. Perhaps she did, but I can certainly tell you that if someone complained that they were unable to vote because a registrar gave them a “hard look,” I would be unmoved at their plight.
But at the same time, it’s fair to say that mixed among her specious complaints are some genuine ones, issues that are fairly described as onerous roadblocks to the exercise of a constitutional right.
You are correct, I phrased that poorly – I tried to go back and edit the “rejects ALL variances” to something more reasonable and I timed out.
If you can show me a couple cases (other than the FFL who now has office space in the police HQ) that were rejected, I think that’s ample evidence.
For what it’s worth, the Zoning Commission decided in November 2011 amendments to the use of C-2 property, which states:
So section 721.3 apparently says that firearm shops are permitted in C-2 areas as “a matter of right” as long as they are not within 300 feet of those areas. This reads differently than your assertion that the Board of Zoning Adjustment has to issue a special permit for such a business.
You’re absolutely right. They changed the law in November 2011.
But she began her series before that change. In fact, one might even speculate that the attention her series brought to the issue was a factor in the zoning change.
As I posted in the other thread. that is a zoning map. Getting a business license is a different thing. Some types of business requires ANC approval and I think gun stores are one of them and AFAICT, every ANC has denied applciations for opening a gun store in their neighborhood. This requirement is simply reinserting a democratic tyranny of the majority over the exercise of constitutional rights.
It would be like having to ask the neighborhood councils in Utah before you could open an abortion facility in their neighborhood.