DC Copies Boston With 'Voluntary' Gun Searches

Updated: Friday, March 14, 2008, 7:35 am -- The Second Amendment Foundation this morning is blasting the DC program, calling it "an outrageous exercise of police state demagoguery." SAF Founder Alan Gottlieb asked the same question I noted in my post yesterday about the curious timing of the program considering that the Heller case will be argued in less than a week before the Supreme Court.

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No suspicion, no warrant . . . just a request to search your home.

"The program is scheduled to start March 24 in the Washington Highlands area of Southeast Washington. Officers will go door-to-door seeking permission to search homes for weapons. Police later plan to visit other areas, including sections of Columbia Heights in Northwest and Eckington in Northeast. 'If we come across illegal contraband, we will confiscate it," Lanier said. "But amnesty means amnesty. We're trying to get guns and drugs off the street.' "

And if you decline, you'll surely be asked, "Why not? You have nothing to hide, right?"

Nope, nothing to hide, but I hope most people will not be stupid enough to give up Constitutional rights and allow some guy who wants to impress his sergeant to snoop around the house.

The city of Boston is playing this same game. But in the District of Columbia the stakes are higher. DC's 30-year-ban on handgun ownership may soon come to a screeching halt with the Heller case. Yes, that's the ban that police and officials claim in amicus briefs they need to keep in place to keep the District safe, even though it has become one of the most dangerous cities in the U.S.

Pigs are flying . . .