Lawmakers ponder gun control proposals
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MISSION VALLEY — After the Sandy Hook shooting, President Obama and politicians from both sides of the aisle pledged new, stricter gun legislation to curb the tide of gun violence in America. Shortly after, gun and ammunition sales skyrocketed around the country in the face of a growing fear among citizens that these new laws, if passed, would, at best, inhibit their efforts to purchase, own and maintain firearms and ammunition. At worst, their guns would be taken away.
Legislation
As of Feb 8, seven bills regarding gun control including a five-bill package by Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) have been introduced in the Senate.
Sen. John Tester’s communications director Andrea Helling said in an e-mail that the bills range from an assault weapons ban to straw firearm purchase prohibitions and strengthening background checks. This comes on the heels of President Obama’s 23 executive actions on gun control signed in mid-January, which deal heavily with cutting red tape surrounding access to mental health records, background checks and data-sharing between federal agencies. They also seek to align gun control efforts at the federal level. After signing these orders, President Obama asked Congress to pass laws that would require background checks on all gun sales, restore a ban on military-style assault weapons, ban gun magazines with capacities of more than 10 rounds and toughen penalties for gun retailers selling to people ineligible for gun ownership. He is currently touring the country to gain public support for the measures and the bills making their way through Congress.
One such bill, sponsored by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and introduced to legislators in late January, seeks to ban the sale, transfer, manufacture and importation of 157 specifically-named firearms, to start.
The bill also bans “all semiautomatic rifles that can accept a detachable magazine and have at least one military feature: pistol grip, forward grip, folding, telescoping or detachable stock; grenade launcher or rocket launcher, barrel shroud or threaded barrel.”
It would also ban all semiautomatic pistols that can accept a detachable magazine and have at least one military feature like a threaded barrel, second pistol grip, barrel shroud, capacity to accept a detachable magazine at some location outside of the pistol grip, or semiautomatic versions of automatic firearms.
The bill goes on to ban any rifle with the fixed capacity to accept more than 10 rounds and all magazines, strips and drums (referred to in the bill as “feeding devices”) capable of holding more than 10 rounds.
Local representatives speak
Tester’s communication department sent the Valley Journal a statement on the senator’s stance regarding the proposed legislation making the rounds in Washington.
“As Congress considers ways to address gun violence, we must look at all aspects of this issue. Our priority must be keeping all Americans — especially our kids — safe. I will look closely at all proposals on the table, but we must use common sense and respect our Constitution,” the statement read.
Congressman Steve Daines was more pointed with his remarks.
“I am committed to protecting and defending Montanans’ Second Amendment rights, and will stand firm against efforts to infringe upon the Constitutional rights of thousands of Montanan’s who safely and lawfully exercise their second amendment every day,” Daines said in response to President Obama’s proposal on new firearm restrictions.
In reference to Sen. Feinstein’s bill, Daines said he would fight to stop any efforts infringing upon Montanan’s Constitutional rights to keep and bear arms.
“Senator Feinstein’s firearm restriction proposal is a misguided distraction that undermines Montana’s freedoms, while doing nothing to address the core challenges behind violent crime. Taking away firearms from law-abiding Montanan’s isn’t the solution. I am committed to ensuring that Montanans’ freedoms to keep and bear arms are protected,” Daines stated.
According to a Feb. 7 New York Times article, lawmakers in at least 15 states have introduced bills that would quash any federal efforts to restrict gun ownership and high-capacity magazines.
The article goes on to say, “some have provocative language calling for states to arrest and prosecute federal agents who dare to enforce new firearms regulations.”
In Montana, Rep. Krayton Kerns (R-HD 58) introduced House Bill 302. The bill, currently sitting in the first house committee meeting, would prohibit Montana from enforcing any federal ban on semiautomatic firearms and magazines.
Will they pass?
Professor Mary Zeiss Stange of Skidmore College in New York has been writing and speaking about women, firearms and hunting for the last 20 years. While she lives in New York during the school year, she and her husband operate a bison ranch in Montana during the summer and winter. She joked that she is a rancher with a job in town, but “it’s quite a commute.”
Stange said President Obama has stated that he supports the assault weapon ban legislation Rep. Feinstein introduced in the Senate, but “it’s considered to be, at best, a long shot; no pun intended,” she said. “The assault weapons ban is a flawed piece of legislation. The question of what constitutes an assault weapon is itself a complex question, and the assault weapons ban that was in place in the 1990s did not reduce crime as it was meant to.”
Stange said the proposed assault weapons ban dangerously confuses semiautomatic rifles and shotguns with assault rifles.
“In that sense, it’s not clearly thought out,” she said. “The assault weapons ban is legislation that is headed toward Congress, but it’s not going to pass ... there won’t be bipartisan support for it, and the Republicans are liable to filibuster it and it would never pass in the House or Representatives, so it’s not going to happen.”
Stange said while universal background checks and more efficient management of the mental health issues are important, the real issue is much deeper.
“I really think there is a much broader and deeper cultural conversation we need to have, and it has to do with the level of violence in the media, the kinds of computer games that are marketed to adolescent males; it has to do with a very complex network of things, some of which can be legislated, some can’t, but none can be legislated quickly without a deep conversation.”
She believes the increased background checks will pass, along with the closing of the gun show loophole, simply because “there’s no good rationale for why there should be a gun show loophole.” But the ban on high capacity magazines is a trickier issue.
While Stange said there is no reason for anyone to need a 30-round clip for hunting or sport shooting purposes, the sheer number of magazines already in circulation will make such a law irrelevant. Stange believes there are hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of these clips in America.
“The bottom-line fact is that most gun crimes are committed by criminals, and most criminals obtain their guns illegally, but that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t be moving forward on some forms of legislation,” Stange said.
Next week
Please see next week’s series installment on the ongoing gun debate in America when more gun control-related issues will be discussed as the situation develops.
