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CHIEF, METROPOLITAN POLICE DEPARTMENT
NOTICE OF EMERGENCY RULEMAKING
The Chief of the Metropolitan Police Department, pursuant to her duties to interpret, implement, and enforce section 8 of An Act To control the possession, sale, transfer, and use of pistols and other dangerous weapons in the District of Columbia, to provide penalties, to prescribe rules of evidence, and for other purposes, approved July 8, 1932 (47 Stat. 652; D.C. Official Code § 22-4508 (2001)), as amended by the Transfer Emergency Amendment Act of 2011, effective May 13, 2011 (D.C. Act 19-0069; 58 DCR 4256(May 20, 2011)), hereby gives notice of the adoption, on an emergency basis, of an amendment to chapter 23 (Guns and Other Weapons) of title 24 (Public Space and Safety) of the District of Columbia Municipal Regulations (DCMR). The rulemaking adds new section 2326, entitled “Waiting Period Prior to Delivery of a Pistol”.
Emergency rulemaking action is necessary to interpret and implement the Council’s amendment to the District’s firearm transfer laws intended to change the ten (10)-day transfer period, from the time of application to the time of purchase, so as to address an immediate need to reduce the waiting time for the registration of handguns for use in self-defense within the home, as further described in the Transfer Amendment Emergency Declaration Resolution of 2011, effective May 3, 2011 (Res. 19-107; 58 DCR 4131(May 13, 2011)).
This emergency rulemaking was adopted on May 27, 2011, and was effective immediately. The emergency rulemaking will expire on one hundred twenty (120) days from the date of its adoption or on the date the Transfer Emergency Amendment Act of 2011 expires, whichever occurs sooner.
Chapter 23 of title 24 DCMR is amended by adding a new section 2326 to read as follows:
2326 WAITING PERIOD PRIOR TO DELIVERY OF A PISTOL
2326.1 Whenever a purchaser makes a purchase of a pistol from a Federal Firearms Licensed dealer located outside the District, and thereafter transfers the pistol to a Federal Firearms Licensed dealer located inside the District to complete the District’s firearm registration process, the beginning of the ten (10)-day waiting period imposed by D.C. Official Code § 22-4508(2001) shall be calculated from the date of the purchase that occurred outside the District.
All persons interested in commenting on the subject matter of this proposed rulemaking action may file comments, in writing, with: Terrence D. Ryan, General Counsel, Metropolitan Police Department, Suite 4125, 300 Indiana Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20001. Comments must be received no later than thirty (30) days after the date of publication of this notice in the D.C. Register. Copies of this proposal may be obtained, at cost, by writing to the above address.
