DC guns versus Nevada hookers

A District of Columbia city council member is proposing a way to challenge Nevada Sen. John Ensign, whose amendment to strip DC's gun control laws has caused a furor among the city's leaders.

If Ensign wants to impose his views on the district's gun controls, perhaps the district should push Congress to take a long look at Nevada's legalized prostitution, says council member Kwame Brown.

Brown is trying to drum up interest in what he calls the "Roses Amendment." He said it would revise the Mann Act that bans the transport of women across state lines for "immoral purposes."

"District residents have fought to rid our community of prostitution in an effort to revitalize our neighborhoods," Brown said. "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."

Brown asked Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., and Eleanor Holmes Norton, the city's House delegate, to consider introducing such an amendment to a DC voting rights bill that has been effectively frozen since Ensign's gun amendment was added to it last month.

Brown said the amendment would prohibit citizens from crossing state lines to solicit sex in states where prostitution is legal. It would prevent brothels from advertising on the Internet, and it would prohibit Nevada brothels from carrying out credit card transactions with out-of-state banks.

It would put the brothels out of business because basically only Nevada residents could legally partake of their services. Prostitution is illegal in Clark and Washoe counties but legal in most of the rural counties.

"The federal government would be within its constitutional authority to regulate this type of commerce," Brown said in a letter he sent Wednesday to Hoyer and Norton. The letter is here.

Asked if Brown was serious, his spokesman Michael Price said: "He is very serious." The council member is circulating the idea, which he believes would pass the House if brought to a vote, Price said. After all, who is going to vote in favor of prostitution?

Ensign responded through his spokesman this afternoon that Brown was trying to "blur the issue." With support from the National Rifle Association, Ensign has framed his amendment as a constitutional matter, saying the district's strict gun laws ar depriving residents of their Second Amendment rights.

There was no immediate comment Thursday from Hoyer or Norton.

"If we must compromise our local government authority in order to satisfy the moral arguments of a few representatives, I believe it reasonable to ask them to consider our moral values in return," Brown said in his letter.

"I believe we should fight guns with roses," he said.