Good Morning, City Desk readers!  It's the second week in August, which usually means that most people are on vacation and not doing anything news-worthy.  But when he was elected, President Obama promised change and he has followed through on that.  Congressional town meetings, once sedate opportunities for schmoozing with your elected officials, have suddenly become centers of lunacy, where anyone will get up and scream their opinions at members of Congress.  Let's take a closer look at two of yesterday's meetings:

• Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) held a town-hall meeting in Hillsboro, MO yesterday.  Or rather, she tried to hold a town-hall meeting and was met with so much anger about health care reform that she took to disciplining the audience.  Video of her questioning the audience's rudeness is here, but McCaskill also tweeted her feelings about this great day in America.
• At another town-hall meeting in New Hampshire, President Obama spent time addressing the concerns of citizens who are wary of the new health care plan.  Unfortunately, this guy couldn't be assuaged, so he decided to show up with a (legal) gun strapped to his leg. Chris Matthews is ready to tear William Kostric a new one but apparently the gun was more for show than actual use and according to Kostric, no one from New Hampshire was alarmed. Read More "Our Morning Roundup: Angry Townsfolk Edition" »

According to Capitol Police spokesperson Kimberly Schneider, a Mercedes driven by a lone man struck a Capitol Police officer who had stopped the vehicle in Columbus Circle. The Mercedes then proceeded down Louisiana Avenue NE going the wrong way. The car was stopped near the intersection of New Jersey Avenue and C Street NW. The driver produced a handgun, did not comply with another Capitol Police officer's instructions, and was shot multiple times by an unknown number of officers while still inside the Mercedes. The suspect has died; no description is currently available. The suspect's gun has been recovered. Officers, she says, "feared for their life." Another Capitol Police officer, on a motorcycle, was injured and transported to a hospital; the officer struck by the car also has minor injuries. Capitol Police are working with Metropolitan Police on the investigation. 6:54 p.m.

Read More "Man Dead in Police Shooting Near U.S. Capitol" »

Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) clearly has little respect for home rule and the unique local situation of the District of Columbia---that would be why he chose to gut D.C.'s gun laws through a amendment to the D.C. House Voting Rights Act. So why should Congress respect his home state's unique local institutions?

Like legalized prostitution.

That would be the thinking of At-Large Councilmember Kwame Brown, who has penned a letter asking Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton and House majority leader Steny Hoyer to introduce something called the "Roses" amendment.

"The 'Roses Amendment,'" Brown writes, "would revise the Mann Act by prohibiting US citizens from crossing state borders to solicit sex in states where prostitution is legal. The amendment would further prohibit these states from using the Internet as a portal to advertise or solicit prostitution. Furthermore, the amendment would make it illegal to complete financial transactions where electronic data or information is shared with any entity located outside of the state for which prostitution is legalized."

Talk about hitting him where it hurts.

Brown explains his reasoning thusly: "If elected officials from states, namely Nevada, can introduce legislation that alters the local laws of the District, I believe the District should offer an amendment that imposes our moral values on such states where prostitution is legal."

As for the name of the bill? "I believe we should fight guns with roses," he writes.

Wow. Wonder what Axl would do?

The D.C. Police Department is making these guns and ammo seizures a regular feature on its website. As if before that annoying gun amendment to the D.C. Voting Rights Bill was added, guns weren't a problem---at least not a problem worth documenting on an almost daily basis. But kudos to the department for doing it. The more transparency the better.

Full rundown of recent gun seizures after the jump.

Read More "D.C. Police Seize Plenty Of Guns" »

The D.C. Police Department continues its sly campaign to make everyone---especially Republicans---aware that there are guns, guns, guns floating around the city. In today's edition, a handgun gets turned in to 2D, a BB gun is recovered, and plenty of ammo is found.

Read More "D.C. Police Seize More Guns" »

The council just voted to require gun owners to undergo safety training before they can register weapons in the District.

At the last council meeting, Councilmember Mary M. Cheh had proposed the measure as an amendment to the bill governing the regulation of handguns. Since then, the mayor's office raised concerns about the possibility that such a requirement, shared with very few other jurisdictions, would attract new litigation from the gun-rights crowd. Phil Mendelson, the at-large councilmember who chairs the judiciary and public safety committee and has taken the lead on writing the city's new gun laws, agreed with that assessment and opposed Cheh's amendment.

Today, Cheh again introduced her amendment, and a short debate ensued, the highlight of which was Chairman Vincent C. Gray sharing a story from his youth to explain his support for training. As a child, he explained, his father had kept a gun in the house, and one time "my parents went out, and my brother decided he was going to quote-unquote 'clean his gun'....I had to go to the bathroom, and while i was in the bathroom, this loud noise went off. My brother did not realize that there was a bullet in the chamber. It went right through the furniture and right through where I was standing."

Said Gray, "God must have decided it wasn't my day to go....I remember it as vividly today as when it just occurred."

Councilmember Harry Thomas Jr., who co-introduced the training amendment with Cheh, also shared an anecdote about the accidental firing of a firearm around the home. The stories seem to have made an impression: The amendment passed 10-3, with Mendelson, Jack Evans, and Carol Schwartz voting against. The amended bill then passed by acclamation.

Good morning, City Desk readers. Your news:

• Yesterday on the MPD-4D listserv, Petworth residents tossed around the idea that the wave of violence had come to an end (or that everyone who cared had moved away), but it looks like they spoke too soon. Police are now looking for a black pick-up truck that shot at two cars last night near Farragut St. NW.
• Pop Cesspool gives his "first thumbs-down" to a Facebook ad.
• Every rag in DC has an "Inauguration Guide"--Washington City Paper's is the one you should use.
• From WaPo: Not to be outdone by PG County, Montgomery County is enacting some far-reaching legislation of its own, which will put an end to "mansionization." (Imagine someone at the planning office holding his thumb and finger close together and saying, "Your house can only be this big.")
• Also in WaPo: American kids are still "just ok" at science.

Photo by Darrow Montgomery.

The Nation’s Gun Show took place this past weekend in Chantilly, Va. I attended looking to meet a few members of armed America and, hopefully, D.C. residents shopping for revolvers—so far the only handguns they can buy.

First things first. After spending several hours trolling “one and a half miles of guns, knives and accessories,” I meet only two D.C. residents: two young men in khakis and oxford shirts who blanch as soon as I say I’m a reporter. When I ask if they’re shopping, one replies, “We’re being cynical, I guess.” Then they both scurry off, without buying the brand new Smith & Wesson commemorative Heller decision revolver. (If they had bought the gun, it wouldn’t have gone home with them. The seller would have to ship it to Charles W. Sykes Jr., the only federally-licensed dealer in D.C.)

More, plus photos after the jump.

Read More "One and a Half Miles of Guns, Knives and Accessories" »

The Washington Post's Shankar Vedantam has a killer angle today on the D.C. handgun ban: An old study found that D.C.'s suicide rate dropped off big time soon as the city enacted the ban in 1976, because handguns make it real convenient for a guy to shoot himself when he gets a suicidal impulse. I highly recommend the article.