October 13, 2006 3:06PM 

# Robberies in the Capital 

By [Tim Lynch](https://www.cato.org/people/tim-lynch) 

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Today’s *Washington Post* has a front page story on [robberies in the District of Columbia](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/12/AR2006101201813.html).

The District of Columbia has one of the strictest gun control laws in the United States. And the old saw about gun control is that when guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns. (Important loopholes: The mayor has his own armed security detail and so do other government employees.)

On this [map](http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/metro/pdf/robbery_101306.pdf) of the city, the red dots indicate robberies where the criminal brandished a gun against the victim. Query: Is the city’s gun control policy helping the people or the criminals?

Go [here](https://www.cato.org/ccs/2nd-amendment.html) for Cato material on gun control. To learn more about a constitutional challenge to DC’s gun control law, go [here](https://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=3716).

##### Related Tags 

[Constitutional Law](https://www.cato.org/constitutional-law), [Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies](https://www.cato.org/robert-levy-center-constitutional-studies) 

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