Donald Trump is taking aim at violent crime in our nation's capital, announcing on Monday morning that he's placing the Metropolitan Police Department under the direct control of the federal government, as well as directing federal law enforcement to agencies and the National Guard to patrol city streets.
The president said on Monday that the action will "rescue our nation’s capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor and worse,” and follows the FBI's deployment of agents to assist the MPD in policing during overnight hours.
The big question, at least for gun owners, is whether the federalized police force will strictly enforce the District's many gun control laws that have been put in place by the City Council, not Congress.
Rep. Thomas Massie has already expressed his concern. After an unnamed White House official touted a number of arrests during a weekend of "increased law enforcement in D.C.", Massie took issue with the administration boasting about arresting "multiple persons" for carrying a pistol without a D.C. carr permit.
Congrats on cracking down on crime, but…
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) August 10, 2025
carrying a pistol without a license isn’t a crime,
it’s a constitutionally protected right. https://t.co/d31N6Kfwyn
Sadly, carrying a pistol without a license is a criminal offense in Washington, D.C. And despite the plain language of the Second Amendment the Supreme Court has upheld "shall issue" carry laws, so while I agree with Massie that constitutional or permitless carry should be the default, SCOTUS says that requiring a license is okay... at least if the licensing regime isn't abusive to our Second Amendment rights.
Still, I have to say that I'm surprised that a White House official would be boasting about busting people for carrying without a ilcense, even if they were only speaking on background. While these arrests might have been valid acts of enforcing D.C. gun laws, the law itself is an ass.
More than half the country has adopted permitless carry, but D.C. still has a restrictive "shall issue" regime that, among other things, doesn't recognize any valid carry permits from the 50 states. Instead, in order to lawfully carry in our nation's capital you have to take a 16-hour training course taught by an instructor certified by the Metropolitan Police Department. It's virtually impossible to obtain that training without traveling to the D.C. suburbs (since there are no public ranges in the District, there's no way to do the two hours of mandated training at a range in D.C. itself).
To make matters worse, the DOJ's Civil Rights Division has already announced that it's investigating the MPD for allegedly slow-walking the issuance of carry licenses, so its conceivable that one or more of those arrested this past weekend has a pending application but has been stuck in a bureaucratic limbo and unable to lawfully carry despite their best efforts.
Of course, it's also conceivable that none of those folks placed in cuffs have applied for a D.C. carry permit, or are even eligible to get one. Still, that's not what the unnamed White House official said, or at least that's not what the Daily Caller's Reagan Reese reported.
While the vast majority of violent criminals who carry a gun are doing so illegally, that doesn't mean that every person carrying a firearm without a license is a violent criminal... especially in a town like D.C. where getting a concealed carry license is a time consuming endeavor and difficult for those reliant on public transportation or rideshare services that demand customers leave their guns behind.
Just getting to the range for the live-fire portion of their training class can be a huge challenge, and I'm sure there are plenty of D.C. residents who are bearing arms without their D.C.-issued permission slip who have plans or desire to commit a carjacking, armed robbery, or aggravated assault. Instead, they're carrying to protect themselves from the violent predators roaming the District's streets, even if it puts them at risk of getting arrested and charged with a possessory crime themselves.
From a P.R. perspective, any White House employee authorized to discuss law enforcement efforts in D.C. shouldn't be bragging about any arrest that's purely a possessory offense. And whenever possible, the U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C. should decline to charge anyone arrested solely for that offense. The Trump administration has taken historic steps to safeguard our Second Amendment rights, and strictly (and directly) enforcing D.C.'s gun control regime would be a huge step in the wrong direction.
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