One bureaucrat from DC quoted in that article says that DC is a "different culture" than the rest of America. He is right. The city government of DC does not trust it's law-abiding citizens to be armed. That IS a different culture from the vast majority of the USA...
The unsaid truth is that DC government is perhaps the most self-loathing racist government in the nation. The mayor, Chief of Police, most of the Council Members, and the Senator are all "african american", and yet they continue to do everything in their power to infringe on the BASIC HUMAN RIGHTS of their mostly-black constituency. DC is not so much a city as it is a plantation, where the "Massa's" are the same race as the slaves.
This criminal infringement on the civil rights of DC residents is an appalling travesty of Justice, and is on it's face immoral, un-Constitutional, and racist. It is an international embarrassment that the residents in the Nation's Capital cannot legally arm themselves for self-defense as they go about their daily business. It is disgusting that visitors from other states with CC permits cannot legally carry for their self-defense while vacationing or on business trips in the Nation's Capital.
I worked in DC for 5 years, and lived in NoVa for 15 years. I rarely went into the District after dark. The only thing more disgusting about DC's prohibition on law-abiding citizens being able to legally protect themselves is the fact that DCMPD is one of the slowest-to-respond metropolitan police departments in the nation, and that the violent crime rate in DC is off the charts.
The city is crawling with criminals (in the 'hood and on the Hill). The police are slow as molasses and often are more corrupt and uncaring than the criminals. The government refuses to let citizens provide for their own defense against violent crime. The only solution to being safe in DC is to NEVER cross the moat, and stay in VA if you can.
Anyone who voluntarily lives in DC is either rich enough to have a bodyguard detail, or is a completely brainwashed sheep. As hard as it is to believe, it's worse than MD. At least in MD, if you grease the right palms, you can get a permit...