Jim Jordan October 2013

Champaign County GOP Rep. Jim Jordan walked back the small-government, gun rights principles that got him elected by introducing a federal bill that would overturn local laws pertaining to firearms in a portion of the United States that he does not represent, writes Joan Shipp.

(Plain Dealer file)

Representing Ohio's 4th congressional district reaching from central Ohio to Elyria, Rep. Jim Jordan was democratically elected to the U. S. Congress promising to limit federal government overreach in the United States and promote democracy in the Middle East. He has been repeatedly supported and endorsed by Tea Party groups for his fierce defense of local control. And Jordan is a vocal opponent of federal interference in the personal choices Americans make about guns. Citing "freedom," Jordan spoke out earlier this year against background checks to prevent convicted criminals from purchasing assault rifles -- military-grade weapons designed to maximize killing efficiency in battle, and the weapon of choice in massacres this year in Chicago, Detroit and Santa Monica.

But last week, Jordan walked back the small-government, gun-rights principles that got him elected by introducing a federal bill that would overturn local laws -- pertaining to firearms -- in a portion of the United States that he does not represent.

Beyond the Capitol and the federal government, Washington, D.C., is home to more than 630,000 U.S. citizens. I am one of them. D.C.’s population is larger than that of either Vermont or Wyoming. We pay local as well as federal taxes, serve in the armed forces, perform jury duty and fulfill all obligations expected of citizens in the United States. What separates me, and my fellow D.C. residents, from the rest of the United States: We have no voting representation in Congress, meaning that while we are obligated to pay dues to the federal government, we are not allowed any input whatsoever in how those resources are allocated or what U.S. laws we must abide by.

Residents of Washington, D.C., routinely fight and die in wars they pay for in taxes and blood, in the name of spreading democracy, but are prevented by law from going to the voting booth and choosing a U.S. senator or representative. Other states effectively elect people who make laws on our behalf. Even D.C.’s local budget is subject to congressional oversight, meaning D.C. can’t fund even trash collection without approval from elected federal officials from, say, Ohio. As a matter of course, Congress routinely prohibits the D.C. government from spending locally raised funds on life-saving city programs for needle exchanges (to reduce the highest HIV/AIDS rate in the country, relative to the 50 states) and abortions for low-income women.

For Jordan, however, denying federal representation and budget autonomy to the citizens of Washington, D.C., is not enough; he actively wants to invalidate what rights we do have. On Dec. 10, Jordan put a proposal before Congress that would overturn local laws in the District of Columbia, and only the District of Columbia, pertaining to guns. If enacted, Jordan’s bill would reverse D.C.’s semi-automatic-weapons ban, severely loosen the restrictions concerning the sale and purchase of firearms and effectively nullify the results of D.C.’s city elections and the democratic process through which the District’s gun laws were passed.

To reiterate: Jim Jordan, a congressional representative elected by the people of Ohio, wants to change U.S. law to override local gun laws in Washington, D.C. The firearms policies my city voted for and enacted are now being threatened by a federal official for whom we did not vote and against whom we have no democratic recourse.

It is well within Jordan’s rights as a congressman to propose federal law on behalf of his constituents in service to them and the entire country. But that’s not what Jordan is doing here. Rather, he is using his federal position to impose his personal views on one city, and one city only, negating our right to even local control. And for what? To make sure the citizens of Washington, D.C., are unable to make decisions for themselves regarding gun ownership, and to use the federal authority vested in him by the people of Ohio to nullify local laws in a city several states away that he happens not to agree with.

In governance, there is a term for the extraction of taxes from citizens on whom you impose laws without their consent: It’s called tyranny.

Jordan’s efforts to unilaterally force his personal beliefs on hundreds of thousands of disenfranchised, taxpaying Americans are nothing short of tyrannical. He may have been elected as a Tea Partier, but he governs like a dictator.

Joan Shipps is an activist with Neighbors United for D.C. Statehood.