Congress Encourages Self-Protection Wielding its budgetary power over the District of Columbia, the U.S. House of Representatives has prohibited Washington D.C., from spending funds to enforce a 29-year-old gun control law requiring firearms kept at home be unloaded and disassembled or protected by a trigger lock. Although the city’s mayor is bitter over the decision, historic crime stats prove the last thing his constituents need is further prohibitions on their right to protect themselves.