According to a Dec. 27th posting on Sen. Feinstein’s website and a draft of the bill obtained by NRA-ILA, the new ban would, among other things, adopt new definitions of “assault weapon” that would affect a much larger variety of firearms, require current owners of such firearms to register them with the federal government under the National Firearms Act, and require forfeiture of the firearms upon the deaths of their current owners. Some of the changes in Feinstein’s new bill are as follows:
- Reduces, from two to one, the number of permitted external features on various firearms. The
1994 ban permitted various firearms to be manufactured only if they
were assembled with no more than one feature listed in the law.
Feinstein’s new bill would prohibit the manufacture of the same firearms
with even one of the features.
- Adopts new lists of prohibited external features. For
example, whereas the 1994 ban applied to a rifle or shotgun the “pistol
grip” of which “protrudes conspicuously beneath the action of the
weapon,” the new bill would drastically expand the definition to include
any “grip . . . or any other characteristic that can function as a
grip.” Also, the new bill adds “forward grip” to the list of prohibiting
features for rifles, defining it as “a grip located forward of the
trigger that functions as a pistol grip.” Read literally and in
conjunction with the reduction from two features to one, the new
language would apply to every detachable-magazine semi-automatic rifle.
At a minimum, it would, for example, ban all models of the AR-15, even
those developed for compliance with California’s highly restrictive ban.
- Carries hyperbole further than the 1994 ban. Feinstein’s 1994 ban listed “grenade launcher” as one of the prohibiting features for rifles. Her 2013 bill carries goes even further into the ridiculous, by also listing “rocket launcher.” Such devices are restricted under the National Firearms Act and, obviously, are not standard components of the firearms Feinstein wants to ban. Perhaps a subsequent Feinstein bill will add “nuclear bomb,” “particle beam weapon,” or something else equally far-fetched to the features list.
- Expands the definition of “assault weapon” by including:
- Three very popular rifles: The M1 Carbine (introduced in 1944 and
for many years sold by the federal government to individuals involved in
marksmanship competition), a model of the Ruger Mini-14, and most or
all models of the SKS.
- Any “semiautomatic, centerfire, or rimfire rifle that has a fixed
magazine with the capacity to accept more than 10 rounds,” except for
tubular-magazine .22s.
- Any “semiautomatic, centerfire, or rimfire rifle that has an overall
length of less than 30 inches,” any “semiautomatic handgun with a fixed
magazine that has the capacity to accept more than 10 rounds,” and any
semi-automatic handgun that has a threaded barrel.
- Three very popular rifles: The M1 Carbine (introduced in 1944 and
for many years sold by the federal government to individuals involved in
marksmanship competition), a model of the Ruger Mini-14, and most or
all models of the SKS.
- Requires owners of existing “assault weapons” to register them with the federal government under the National Firearms Act (NFA). The
NFA imposes a $200 tax per firearm, and requires an owner to submit
photographs and fingerprints to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms
and Explosives (BATFE), to inform the BATFE of the address where the
firearm will be kept, and to obtain the BATFE’s permission to transport
the firearm across state lines.
- Prohibits the transfer of “assault weapons.” Owners
of other firearms, including those covered by the NFA, are permitted to
sell them or pass them to heirs. However, under Feinstein’s new bill,
“assault weapons” would remain with their current owners until their
deaths, at which point they would be forfeited to the government.
- Prohibits the domestic manufacture and the importation of magazines that hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition. The
1994 ban allowed the importation of such magazines that were
manufactured before the ban took effect. Whereas the 1994 ban protected
gun owners from errant prosecution by making the government prove when a
magazine was made, the new ban includes no such protection. The new ban
also requires firearm dealers to certify the date of manufacture of any
>10-round magazine sold, a virtually impossible task, given that
virtually no magazines are stamped with their date of manufacture.
- Targets handguns in defiance of the Supreme Court. The Court ruled in District of Columbia v. Heller that
the Second Amendment protects the right to have handguns for
self-defense, in large part on the basis of the fact handguns are the
type of firearm “overwhelmingly chosen by American society for that
lawful purpose.” Semi-automatic pistols, which are the most popular
handguns today, are designed to use detachable magazines, and the
magazines “overwhelmingly chosen” by Americans for self-defense are
those that hold more than 10 rounds. Additionally, Feinstein’s list of
nearly 1,000 firearms exempted by name (see next paragraph) contains not
a single handgun. Sen. Feinstein advocated banning handguns before
being elected to the Senate, though she carried a handgun for her own
personal protection.
- Contains a larger piece of window dressing than the 1994 ban. Whereas the 1994 ban included a list of approximately 600 rifles and shotguns exempted from the ban by name, the new bill’s list is increased to nearly 1,000 rifles and shotguns. Other than for the 11 detachable-magazine semi-automatic rifles and one other semi-automatic rifle included in the list, however, the list appears to be pointless, because a separate provision of the bill exempts “any firearm that is manually operated by bolt, pump, lever, or slide action.”
“Assault weapon” numbers and murder trends. From
the imposition of Feinstein's “assault weapon” ban (Sept. 13, 1994)
through the present, the number of “assault weapons” has risen
dramatically. For example, the most common firearm that Feinstein
considers an “assault weapon” is the AR-15 rifle, the manufacturing
numbers of which can be gleaned from the BATFE’s firearm manufacturer
reports, availablehere.
From 1995 through 2011, the number of AR-15s—all models of which
Feinstein’s new bill defines as “assault weapons”—rose by over 2.5
million. During the same period, the nation's murder rate fell 48
percent, to a 48-year low. According to the FBI, 8.5 times as many people are murdered with knives, blunt objects and bare hands, as with rifles of any type.
Traces: Feinstein
makes several claims, premised on firearm traces, hoping to convince
people that her 1994 ban reduced the (relatively infrequent) use of
“assault weapons” in crime. However, traces do not indicate how often
any type of gun is used in crime. As the Congressional Research Service
and the BATFE have explained, not all firearms that are traced have been
used in crime, and not all firearms used in crime are traced. Whether a
trace occurs depends on whether a law enforcement agency requests that a
trace be conducted. Given that existing “assault weapons” were exempted
from the 1994 ban and new “assault weapons” continued to be made while
the ban was in effect, any reduction in the percentage of traces
accounted for by “assault weapons” during the ban, would be attributable
to law enforcement agencies losing interest in tracing the firearms, or
law enforcement agencies increasing their requests for traces on other
types of firearms, as urged by the BATFE for more than a decade.
Call Your U.S. Senators and Representative: As
noted, Feinstein intends to introduce her bill on January 3rd.
President Obama has said that gun control will be a “central issue” of
his final term in office, and he has vowed to move quickly on it.Contact your members of Congress at 202-224-3121 to urge them to oppose Sen. Feinstein’s 2013 gun and magazine ban. Our elected representatives in Congress must here from you if we are going to defeat this gun ban proposal. You can write your Representatives and Senators by using our Write Your Representatives tool here: http://www.nraila.org/get-involved-locally/grassroots/write-your-reps.aspx
Millions of Americans own so-called “assault weapons” and tens of millions own “large” magazines, for self-defense, target shooting, and hunting. For more information about thehistory of the “assault weapon” issue, please visit www.GunBanFacts.com.
