Feinstein Goes For Broke With New Gun-Ban Bill (NRA-ILA Letter)

NRAILA.org ^ | December 27, 2012 | NRA-ILA

[servo1969]

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.)—author of the federal “assault weapon” and “large” ammunition magazine ban of 1994-2004—has announced that on the first day of the new Congress—January 3rd— she will introduce a bill to which her 1994 ban will pale by comparison. On Dec. 17th, Feinstein said, “I have been working with my staff for over a year on this legislation” and “It will be carefully focused.” Indicating the depth of her research on the issue, she said on Dec. 21st that she had personally looked at pictures of guns in 1993, and again in 2012.

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.
     
• 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.”
  
  

The Department of Justice study. On her website, Feinstein claims that a study for the DOJ found that the 1994 ban resulted in a 6.7 percent decrease in murders. To the contrary, this is what the study said: “At best, the assault weapons ban can have only a limited effect on total gun murders, because the banned weapons and magazines were never involved in more than a modest fraction of all gun murders. Our best estimate is that the ban contributed to a 6.7 percent decrease in total gun murders between 1994 and 1995. . . . However, with only one year of post-ban data, we cannot rule out the possibility that this decrease reflects chance year-to-year variation rather than a true effect of the ban.  Nor can we rule out effects of other features of the 1994 Crime Act or a host of state and local initiatives that took place simultaneously.”

“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.

[drypowder]

70 + % of Americans DID NOT WANT obozo care but the liberal socialists in government made a mockery of the process and were aided by the MSM’s selective reporting and we now have obozo care. We did not remain silent, hundreds of thousands of people peacefully challenged the government but to no avail. After the 2012 election those same liberal socialists are still on a roll to reshape this country and with the help of the MSM again, will do a repeat performance and force gun control down our throats.
To date, we have swallowed the government's citizen control measure, aka obozo care, we have swallowed the re-imaculation to the WH of the fraud obozo and I surmise that most will swallow the coming government gun grab. Obviously, placing any reliance on the good guys in DC to organize a counter effort to do what is right for the country in all regards is a fool's dream. Eventually, the globalists will win and we, the American patriots, will lose. What would any of our FOUNDING FATHERS expect us to do???

[Brooklyn Attitude]

I was very surprized that she would propose something so weak for an initial bargaining position. I thought it would be “Mr and Mrs America, turn them in”.

[Still Thinking]

The mentally ill will always be among us. Occasionally, one of them will figure a way to do their evil deeds get elected to the Presidency.

[Axenolith]

REMEMBER-

The way this works is that they will "over-reach" in what they're asking for in legislation, we will bitch and carp about it, and then they will scale it back and we'll be happy/relieved that was "all that was done to us".

This time around we need to be on top of the fact that there will be NO compromises on this. We "need" ZERO new gun laws. Any proposed need to be DOA.

(sorry for the super size, I wanted it to be half that but my html karate is bad...)

[smokingfrog]

I’m not giving up my plasma rifle.

[Still Thinking]

Exactly. Those linguini-spined RINO’s need to relearn the definition of “compromise”. It doesn’t mean that we get screwed and that’s our compromise, and they get to screw us less than originally proposed and that’s their compromise. Everyone has to get something they want, relative to the actual status quo ante, not imaginary datums that never actually existed in practice. If they insist on sticking to the other definition, then Pubsters have to start proposing things like the repeal of 10,000 laws and dissolution of 10 agencies, then claim it’s a “compromise” if we only get repeal 5,000 and axe 5 agencies.

[NELSON111]

I hope the GOP lets it come to a vote.

I want to know exactly who they are...

And if this passes...and somehow Obama EO's it...then I will be gone completely off the radar...and I would suggest everyone else does the same...

Pretty sad that I am nervous just posting anything now...

[basil]

LOL!

I’ve always thought that anyone who even wanted to be president was whacko!

[Colorado Doug]

she had personally looked at pictures of guns in 1993, and again in 2012

Wow! That would make her some kind of an expert on scary looking guns, wouldn't it?

[45semi]

If the average firearm owning American doesnt 'get it' yet,
that somehow, they still think that this ISNT about making us 'serfs' or 'subjects'
that they will still be 'free' to hunt, or keep a pistol to defend their house & family against a home invasion from some Øzombie,
then we're toast.

Anyone who owns a firearm, of any type, for whatever reason, had better, at a minimum, go ahead & send a check or cash to either the NRA or GOA

Unless they are 'comfortable' with a nation that will quickly resemble this:
Where our nation is heading!

After all, just WHAT are those 1.4 BILLION rounds of ammunition the DHS bought going to be used for???

[Erik Latranyi]

Whew!

At least I can still attach my Corbomite Device under this legislation!

[Road Glide]

“I don’t think the GOP will filibuster it ...”

Have you forgotten that Harry Reid is going to all-but eliminate the filibuster in the Senate, in January?

Feinstein’s gun ban will sail through the Senate.

The House is the only firewall.
At least until 2014...

[IslamE]

Amen, that’s why I don’t let the Dems get the better of me, it’s hard sometimes with such arrogant individuals like: Obama, Pelosi, and Reid! Yet, I truly believe God is angry with these men and women who feel they have more wisdom than the Lord Almighty, they put their faith in laws of their own making and refute God’s Law altogether, the Dems denied God three times at their convention, since, we have had numerous tragedies and disasters, God will only tolerate the Dems’ hubris for so long, then, they will know His wrath!