WASHINGTON – The politics of gun control intruded on financial policy again last week when the House Financial Services Committee voted to attach an amendment to a pending housing bill that will allow guns in public housing projects.
The amendment would bar any housing authority from restricting legal ownership of guns. It was adopted as the committee began the markup of a bill to reform Section 8 (subsidized housing) vouchers. The committee has yet to finish its work on the bill.
"Seniors and other individuals have the right to protects themselves," said Joe Baca, of California, one of 13 Democrats who voted for the amendment, during the debate on the gun amendment. "Those guns would be registered, and those individuals have a right, in public housing or any other place, to protect themselves."
But most Democrats on the panel opposed the amendment.
"There was a time during the ’70s and ’80s when public housing developments were considered killing grounds," said Emanuel Cleaver, of Missouri, who grew up in public housing. "It is just foolhardy to place guns in developments of poor people, many of whom are unemployed, and place these guns around children. . . . Why would we try to put guns in the most densely populated areas in the urban core? It’s just unbelievable."
This is the second time in recent weeks that gun control has become part of the debate on financial services. An obscure amendment that will allow people to carry conceal guns in national parks was added to the credit card reform bill signed into law by President Obama last month.
The guns in public housing amendment was added to the bill by Tom Price, a Republican from Georgia, and passed on a 38-31 vote. Only two Republicans, Peter King from New York, and Michael Castle from Delaware, voted against it.
At least one Democrat, Carolyn McCarthy, of New York, who is a long-time supporter of gun control, said she will try to get the gun amendment removed form the bill when the full house takes it up.
