From the “new and improved” WhiteHouse.gov:
Address Gun Violence in Cities: Obama and Biden would repeal the Tiahrt Amendment, which restricts the ability of local law enforcement to access important gun trace information, and give police officers across the nation the tools they need to solve gun crimes and fight the illegal arms trade. Obama and Biden also favor commonsense measures that respect the Second Amendment rights of gun owners, while keeping guns away from children and from criminals. They support closing the gun show loophole and making guns in this country childproof. They also support making the expired federal Assault Weapons Ban permanent.
So what is an assault weapon, and what would the Assault Weapons Ban prohibit you from getting?
The law’s authors had to be as precise as possible in crafting the ban, since the phrase “assault weapon” isn’t really part of the gun-making vocabulary. Rather, it’s a catchall term that gun-control advocates define as covering any firearm designed for rapidly firing at human targets from close range. The 19 guns called out in the ban are all semiautomatic in nature: They can eject spent shell casings and chamber the next bullet without human intervention, but only one round is fired per squeeze of the trigger.
Wait, there’s more:
On top of the Big 19, the ban also included a few formulas for forbidding less well-known armaments. A semiautomatic rifle was considered an illicit assault weapon, for example, if it featured a detachable magazine, as well as at least two of the following five attributes: a folding or telescopic stock; a conspicuous pistol grip; a bayonet mount; a flash suppressor or threaded barrel (i.e., a barrel that can accommodate a flash suppressor); or a grenade launcher. The checklist for semiautomatic pistols includes guns weighing more than 50 ounces when unloaded, and those featuring a “shroud” on the barrel to prevent a shooter’s non-trigger hand from being burned.
The ban also outlawed the manufacture of magazines capable of carrying more than 10 rounds. That meant supplies of high-capacity magazines were limited to pre-1994 models, and gun dealers charged a pretty penny for these relative antiques.
Handguns were not bothered under this ban. But that can easily change. In June of last year, I warned you about a plan to ban handguns by calling them…wait for it…”assault weapons“:
How, you ask? Simple: The bans on so called “assault weapons” define a magazine with the capacity to hold more than 10 rounds as a “high capacity assault weapon feeding device.” Then, ordinary guns such as the Springfield XD, or even the guns that have been around for over 100 years and won the wild west, are suddenly classified as “assault weapons.” Since such a definition defies common sense, most people don’t know that their ordinary handgun, or antique lever action rifle is now an “assault weapon” until they are arrested and jailed.
With Bobby Rush introducing HR 45 and enough RINOs in the Senate to pass any gun control bill, you can expect this to happen.
Now you understand why gun sales have been through the roof since November.
And for those who want to use the old, tired mantra of “why do you need an assualt rifle to hunt with anyway?”
The Second Amendment isn’t about hunting.
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