Although Washington DC has some of the strictest gun laws in the nation, the Navy Yard shooter proved once again that even this amount of gun control cannot stop a criminal intent on carrying out his crime.
While Breitbart News and The Wall Street Journal indicate Aaron Alexis legally purchased his shotgun in Virginia, he only did so late last week. Which means he did not have the time to go through the process to register the shotgun and obtain the firearm registration certificate necessary to possess and/or transport the firearm legally in DC.
According to the Washington DC Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) website, Alexis had a 48-hour window from the time of purchase in which to let the Firearms Registration Section of the MPD know he needed to register his shotgun. After that, he would be required to bring his shotgun–unloaded–to the Firearms Registration Section along with the eligibility and requirement forms “necessary to complete the registration process.”
After filling out the paper work, getting fingerprinted, etc., Alexis would then be required to leave his unloaded shotgun with the Firearms Registration Section until his registration application was approved. Once approved the Firearms Registration Section would have contacted him to come pick up his registration certificate or have it mailed to him. Only then would Alexis get his shotgun back and be able to legally possess it.
The approval process alone normally takes five days, so there is simply no way Alexis went through the process to legally possess and transport the firearm. And why would someone go through all this trouble to legally possess a gun they intended to use in an illegal fashion?
The bottom line–Criminals are not hindered by gun control laws.
Follow AWR Hawkins on Twitter @AWRHawkins