With regard to Plaxico Burress’ recent foolishness my friend and I got into a discussion about which city had the strictest gun laws. I pointed out that New York State recently upped the mandatory minimum for possession of an unregistered handgun to 3.5 years, which is probably the longest MM in the nation. He responded that, the recent Supreme Court case notwithstanding, Washington DC is often considered to have the strictest laws in the country.
Regardless of the validity of our previous contentions, when we got down to trying to determine the minimum mandatory sentence for possession of a handgun in the district, we couldn’t find one.
A summary of DC gun laws is available from the NRA but it doesn’t discuss punishment. I can’t find anything about sentencing in the DC code, but I easily could have missed it. Finally, there is the US Code, which in most cases applies to the District, but my non-legal reading of 924(c)(1)(a) is that it only applies to possession of a firearm that is used during a crime of violence or drug trafficking.
So I avail myself to the knowledge of the Dopesters: is there a minimum mandatory sentence for possession of a handgun in Washington D.C.?