DC Gun Ban Repeal Some 50 Democrats, about a quarter of those in the House, voted 259-161 to pass a repeal of the law prohibiting ordinary persons from owning firearms in the District of Columbia. That's a wider margin of success than in the last Congress, when the same bill passed but was not taken up by the Senate. This time, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson, a Texan who was surprised to learn that she had been breaking the law for years, is among several pushing hard to pass the measure in the Senate.