http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/05/AR2008050502527.html?wpisrc=newsletter&sid=ST2008050600645

Comes yet another reason to trust your lives to the wisdom & sagacity of the DC city Fathers:
"April was a deadly month in the District, with 18 homicides, nine of them in Northeast Washington neighborhoods west of the Anacostia River. On one Saturday, four people were fatally shot within four hours. With motives including domestic issues, revenge and conflicts over drugs, authorities have been struggling to develop clear patterns and catch the criminals."

Oh, wait! I guess the outlawing of guns hasn't saved any lives. Because in spite (or maybe because of) the gun ban, DC still has the highest murder rate of anywhere in the land.
Note also the MOTIVES for the killing; domestic issues, revenge & conflicts over drugs. But NOT the presence of guns. Guns are used to kill, but they're not the MOTIVE for killing.

The city Fathers are trying though:
"Speaking after Friday's start of the department's most recent citywide patrol and enforcement operation, dubbed All Hands on Deck, Lanier said she already had focused more efforts on the 5th District as well as the 1st District, which covers the Capitol Hill area. Both had spikes in gun crimes in the past month. Probably the most visible enforcement efforts are police checkpoints, in which officers use the traffic stops to gather information on individuals that often ends up in the department's intelligence banks."

Well, having ignored the Const. in re the 2nd., I suppose its no surprise to see Gestapo-like checkpoints in the city either.

"On April 24, George Douglas's father, who did not want his name published for fear of retribution, told a packed crime forum that it was all he could do not to seek revenge. His son, 18, was shot in April.

"My son was shot in the head, and they dragged him on the train tracks," the man said. "I don't want my son to be no John Doe . . . My son was not no criminal . . . That man has blood on his hands . . . I want to see him."

A week later, police arrested a 15-year-old in the slaying."

What?! A 15 y/o can get a gun? In spite of the ban? Say it ain't so! Still, the thing I noticed here was that the father is so afraid that he won't give out his name. Maybe if he had the means to protect himself (because he clearly doesn't believe the cops will) he wouldn't be so afraid.

OTOH, approaches that might REALLY work are also being tried:
"But law enforcement alone is not the solution, Lanier said.

It is a point that residents make constantly: Government agencies, churches and businesses must take a more direct role in bettering the lives of residents, and people must stop writing children off as bad apples without offering help.

"We always wait until the situation gets out of control and everybody wants to talk about the surface of the problem," said Chanell Kelton, 24, who lives in Brentwood. "We say that it has to start in the home, but for a lot of children, there is no home.""

No fooling! Over 30 years of focusing on what is NOT the motivation for crime hasn't done any good at all. Neither has disarming the victims. The only real hope for the city is for the Supremes to toss the gun ban. And the sooner, the better.