Close your windows. Lock your doors. Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California has introduced legislation seeking to ban the use of dozens of popular firearms, erroneously labeling them “military-style assault weapons” and criminalizing their sale.
Gun-grab
Sen. Feinstein’s proposal, dubbed the “Assault Weapons Ban of 2019,” would prohibit firearms which have a detachable magazine plus any one feature from a list of attributes that the California liberal has deemed too dangerous. These “military characteristics” include “a pistol grip, a forward grip, a barrel shroud, a threaded barrel or a folding or telescoping stock.”
Additionally, magazines that “hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition” would be banned, and “stabilizing braces” that allow “assault pistols” to “fire more accurately” may no longer be sold. According to Feinstein, these devices “transform assault pistols into assault rifles by allowing the shooter to shoulder the weapon and fire more accurately.”
Feinstein and her co-sponsors, Sens. Chris Murphy (D-CT) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), specifically prohibit “the sale, manufacture, transfer and importation of 205 military-style assault weapons by name.” The bill also enjoys partisan support from a host of Democratic heavy-hitters, from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) to presidential hopeful Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA).
“Military-style assault weapons have but one purpose, and in my view that’s a military purpose, to hold at the hip, possibly, to spray fire to be able to kill large numbers,” Feinstein argued in 2013.
My cold, dead hands
According to the National Rifle Association’s Institute for Legislative Action, however, the Democrats’ latest gun control proposal would target “the most popular class of centerfire rifles in America.” Some 16 million AR-15-style rifles have been sold since 2004, when a Bill Clinton-era assault weapons ban expired.
While the modern sporting rifle may not be the most practical weapon for hunting or home defense, the AR-15’s modularity makes it extremely popular with a diverse class of shooters. Survivalists, marksmen, small game hunters, and gun collectors all enjoy this rifle for various reasons, the least common of which happens to be for mass murder.
Feinstein has targeted a class of rifles based upon arbitrary, cosmetic considerations, rather than a genuine desire to improve public safety. She is providing false comfort to the uneducated, who see the AR-15 as a “fully semi-automatic” “killing machine.”
When compared to other hunting rifles, the AR-platform is hardly the most lethal weapon available in the marketplace of arms. In terms of muzzle velocity and caliber, the modern sporting rifle is outclassed by dozens of other long rifles.
The high capacity magazines targeted by Feinstein’s legislation aren’t quite the public danger they’re accused of being, either. A trained shooter can change smaller magazines in close to one second, and magazines carrying 30 or more rounds are more likely to malfunction, which can incapacitate a weapon for several minutes.
Failed agenda
“It is disappointing to see politicians continue to pursue a failed policy agenda that has proven ineffective in improving public safety and will deny law-abiding citizens their Constitutional right,” said Lawrence G. Keane of the The National Shooting Sports Foundation, which publicly opposes Feinstein’s bill.
“Despite what proponents may say, the record shows that Sen. Feinstein’s original 1994 Federal Assault Weapons Ban had no demonstrable impact on reducing crime and this one would be equally ineffective,” Keane continued.
Democrats’ attempt to reconstitute an assault weapons ban is just as foolhardy and impractical as it was when first implemented 25 years ago. Fortunately, Feinstein’s Republican colleagues in the Senate, the White House, and the Supreme Court aren’t likely to join in support of her misguided gun bill.
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