DC Mayor Slams Marco Rubio

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser wrote a scathing editorial against Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) over his push to make weapons like the AR-15, used in the Parkland shooting last month, legal for teens to own in the District.

Just weeks after a mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in his own state involving an AR-15, Rubio wants to overrule D.C. leadership and make it legal for 18- and 21-year-olds to purchase "assault weapons and high-capacity magazines," Bowser wrote in the Miami Herald editorial, posted Thursday.

"It is heartening that Rubio has recently expressed support for raising the minimum age for purchasing a gun and for comprehensive background checks, but for the residents of the nation’s capital, it is also confounding, because it is the height of hypocrisy to unveil and promote these new stances while simultaneously working to gut D.C.’s local gun laws," she wrote.

She added: "We respectfully ask the senator to leave us alone."

While D.C. has a mayor and a city council like any other city, it is unique in that Congress has ultimate say over how the city is run. Traditionally, Congress has left D.C. to be run by its own residents, but in recent years, Republicans have taken an interest in "meddling," as the locals call it.

Recently retired Congressman Jason Chaffetz of Utah clashed with the District several times over marijuana and assisted suicide. And now Rubio is trying to loosen gun laws in a city that is overwhelmingly in favor of them -- interference that continues to irritate D.C. leadership.

"I am proud of the gun legislation that Washington, D.C., has adopted over the years. Just last week, I introduced legislation to ban the sale and possession of bump stocks," Bowser wrote. "However, as strong as D.C.’s gun laws may be, we are always susceptible to congressional interference. For more than a decade, members of Congress have repeatedly ignored the will of Washingtonians by introducing bills to gut our gun laws."

Image via D.C. mayor's office