Registering a rifle

Recently brought B's inherited Winchester 22 rifle (Model 67a) into DC when I noticed in one of the briefs in the Supreme Court handgun case that rifles have been allowed all along. Some hoops I just went through to register it (trying to get in before the handgun rush) included:

1) bringing a signed affidavit that, among other things, I haven't been convicted of being a prostitute, abrogating strikers, or running a bawdy house
2) paying $48
3) being fingerprinted extensively
4) producing a passport size photo
5) taking a test and most exciting of all

(drum roll)

6) bringing the rifle today into DC police headquarters at 300 Indiana following their advice to have a family member stay double-parked outside (so I don't have to walk far with it) while I carried it in

To lower the troubling risk of being misinterepreted as a threat, I focused carefully on clothes, wearing a wrinkled white "polo" shirt with khaki shorts, along with beat up Nike tennis shoes, so I looked like just another sporting, shlepping boomer carrying heat.

The initial response at the 300 Indiana metal detector was more interpretative than anything, as if I was a sort of oversized rorschach inkblot. "He can't bring that in here." "No that's handguns you can't bring in.." "Wait a minute." "Let me call someone." "Why don't you give that to us." "We're getting you an escort." All the while I follow my main lesson from my 30 minutes of FBI training 25 years ago, "don't move."

And in less than five minutes I was escorted upstairs to gun registration, where they helped me out with great friendliness and enthusiasm, though with some bemusement, I think, at my handwriting, the lack of a serial number on the rifle, my suggestion that the gun was an antique, and my inability to describe what I might use the gun for. "Shooting varmints? " one officer asked. "Write down that you plan to keep it unloaded and locked in your room," advised another.
As I strolled outside to the car only a half hour later the brilliant Washington summer sun glared at everyone, but I smiled and carried my rifle nonchalantly, as though I did it every day.