Most Sweeping Gun-Ban Legislation Ever Proposed

In the days following the 2006 election, I warned people here on RedState [Author's note: I originally started talking about the issue there] that the gun-ban crowd was going to work very quickly once the new Congress had taken office to begin rolling back all of the pro-2nd Amendment gains the NRA and its supporters have made in the past six years.

In private conversations with a few liberal and independent friends, I had been assured that my concerns about the Dems'. intentions were utterly unfounded and devoid of substance. I mean, you could read right there in the paper that that Rahm Emanuel and Charles Schumer consciously sought to bring more pro-gun moderate Democrats into the fold to help bolster their chances in '06. They would never try to reauthorize the Clinton gun ban so quickly, and certainly never any stronger version of it.

I was basically ridiculed by another person I know in Washington who calmly assured me that the Democrats would never touch gun legislation until well after 2008. I was called an alarmist. I was advised not to hyperventilate a proposed airgun ban in Massachusetts into a nationwide crisis that wasn't going to materialize. "Pish-posh," they told me, "the Democrats would never be so stupid as to awaken that sleeping giant so early." Fugheddaboutit, kid. You're imagining things.

I was right, and they were wrong. On February 13, unnoticed here on [my blogospheric homelands] and by me until I got the email alert this morning, Representative Carolyn McCarthy (D4-NY) introduced H.R. 1022: "...“to reauthorize the assault weapons ban, and for other purposes.”

More information on the bill, currently before the House Judiciary Committee, can be found here.

And here is an excerpt (almost verbatim) from the NRA-ILA. I invite (and urge) you to read the entire text of the press release.

McCarthy’s verbiage warrants explanation. Presumably, what she means by “assault weapons ban” is the Clinton Gun Ban of 1994. Congress allowed the ban to expire in 2004 for multiple reasons, including the fact that federal, state and local law enforcement agency studies showed that guns affected by the ban had been used in only a small percentage of crime, before and after the ban was imposed.

With the nation’s murder rate 43% lower than in 1991, and the re-legalized guns still used in only a small percentage of crime, reauthorizing the Clinton Gun Ban would be objectionable enough. But McCarthy’s “other purposes” would make matters even worse. H.R. 1022 would ban every gun banned by the Clinton ban, plus millions more guns, including:

• Every gun made to comply with the Clinton ban. (The Clinton ban dictated the kinds of grips, stocks and attachments new guns could have. Manufacturers modified new guns to the Clinton requirements. H.R. 1022 would ban the modified guns too.)

• Guns exempted by the Clinton ban. (Ruger Mini-14s and -30s and Ranch Rifles; .30 cal. carbines; and fixed-magazine, semi-automatic, center-fire rifles that hold more than 10 rounds.)

• All semi-automatic shotguns. (E.g., Remington, Winchester, Beretta and Benelli, used for hunting, sport shooting, and self-defense. H.R. 1022 would ban them because they have “any characteristic that can function as a grip,” and would also ban their main component, called the “receiver.”)

• All detachable-magazine semi-automatic rifles - including, for example, the ubiquitous Ruger 10/22 .22 rimfire-because they have “any characteristic that can function as a grip.”

• Target shooting rifles. (E.g., the three centerfire rifles most popular for marksmanship competitions: the Colt AR-15, the Springfield M1A and the M1 “Garand.”)

• Any semi-automatic shotgun or rifle an Attorney General one day claims isn’t “sporting,” even though the constitutions of the U.S. and 44 states, and the laws of all 50 states, recognize the right to use guns for defense.

• 65 named guns (the Clinton law banned 19 by name); semi-auto fixed-magazine pistols of over 10 rounds capacity; and frames, receivers and parts used to repair or refurbish guns.

You can call your U.S. Representative at (202) 225-3121. I hope that the pro-2nd Amendment folks at RedState, HinzSight, and TMR will consider producing a "Get-Involved!" front-page story about this new legislation.

Just as our Democrat friends have not wasted one minute implementing their strategy to "slow bleed" the War in Iraq, I realized the moment the election returns came in that this legislation had been in embryo for quite some time, waiting for the opportunity. Well, the opportunity arrived, and the hour is at hand. The gun-ban Democrats are not going to wait, all talk of "a moderate, pro-gun freshman class" notwithstanding.