You can view a summary of the proposed bill on Sen. Feinstein’s website. The proposed bill reads like an anti-gun wet dream, a moonshot with no chance of making it.
So the real question is whether or not you contacted your Senators yet today? Because all that this does is give us an actual target to go after when emailing our Senators in the upcoming legislative session. If you’ve a new Senator coming in, email their office right now.
There has been a lot of nonsense going around lately, and a lot of people I know are accepting some kind of new anti-gun legislation as fait accompli. If you want to give up and go get kicked around, that’s your problem. The rest of us will be protecting your gun rights while you whine. Seriously, go email your Senators now. Donate to NRA-ILA. It’s not time to quit, it’s time to saddle up.
Sen. Feinstein’s proposed legislation includes the following provisions:
- Strengthens the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban and various state bans by
- Moving from a 2-characteristic test to a 1-characteristic test
- Eliminating the easy-to-remove bayonet mounts and flash suppressors from the characteristics test
- Banning firearms with “thumbhole stocks” and “bullet buttons” to address attempts to “work around” prior bans
- Bans large-capacity ammunition feeding devices capable of accepting more than 10 rounds.
- Requires that grandfathered weapons be registered under the National Firearms Act
It’s the last bit that indicates this is Sen. Feinstein’s home run swing: grandfathering existing weapons under the NFA? Good luck getting that. It would be basically logistically impossible to make that happen and the level of non-compliance both intentional and accidental would be staggering. Assuming for the moment that’s just a bargaining chip that they threw in there to later get tossed; let’s now take a look at what the bill would actually ban.
For those that don’t remember the original AWB, it banned guns based on a certain number of “military characteristics”, where a gun had to have two or more. The new ban would change that to one or more, and the military characteristics list would look like this:
Rifles
Folding/telescoping stock
pistol gripPistols
Magazine that attaches outside the pistol grip
Threaded barrel to attach barrel extender, flash suppressor, handgrip, or suppressor
Barrel shroud that can be used as a hand-hold
Unloaded weight of 50 oz (1.4 kg) or moreSemi-auto shotguns
Folding or telescoping stock
Pistol grip
Fixed capacity of more than 5 rounds
Detachable magazine.
I should note that the lines about pistols and semi-auto shotguns are my conjecture, based on the assumption that the new bill would include all the provisions of the 1994 ban. With the change to one military feature, think about how many guns you have sitting around that would be banned, or for that matter how many accessories. Every USPSA Open gun automatically becomes an assault weapon, because they all have threaded barrels for compensators. A Mossberg 935 Turkey gun becomes an assault weapon because it has a pistol grip.
Make no mistake, this bill is bad. I also don’t think this bill will pass, and I’d like to thank Senator Feinstein’s staff for giving us an actual concrete target. So now, instead of rolling over and playing dead, write your Senators today. There is a link in the top of this post to find and contact your senator, so now is the time for action. Get on the email, make it happen.
Urge your Senators to oppose any proposed assault weapons ban. Be polite, be courteous and be professional, but email them now.
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