The Nation - News from Feb. 28, 1989

Washington Mayor Marion Barry, grappling with a record murder rate, proposed legislation to mandate a five-year prison term for anyone caught carrying an unregistered handgun. The law, if passed by the City Council, would toughen the city’s handgun control law, which is already among the nation’s strictest. In the first 58 days of the year, 88 people had been murdered in Washington. Now, a first-time offender caught with an unregistered handgun is charged with a misdemeanor punishable by at most one year behind bars. City law now makes gun possession a felony on second offense. Barry proposed making it a felony for anyone to carry an unregistered handgun.