By The Editors

Support for legislation that would have given the residents of the District of Columbia a voting representative in Congress, seemingly assured earlier this month, collapsed this week over an amendment to the bill that would have substantially weakened the city’s gun-control law.

The amendment, backed by Republican legislators, led several key Democrats both within Congress and on the D.C. City Council, to declare that they would oppose the bill if the amendment remained attached. The amendment would have allowed individuals to carry firearms without having permits to do so and allowed civilians to carry guns in city-controlled buildings.

House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer, D-Md., and Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District’s non-voting delegate to Congress, agreed to withdraw the bill from consideration.