BELLEVUE, WA – The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms today announced its support of H.R. 2710, the “Lawful Purpose and Self-Defense Act of 2015,” which would replace the “sporting purposes” standard on importation of certain firearms and ammunition, and update how they are defined.
“There is no ‘sporting purpose’ stipulation in the Second Amendment,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb, “and there should not be one in federal law. The right to keep and bear arms is not just about hunting or target shooting. It is time for this restrictive language to be replaced.”
Under the proposal, introduced Wednesday by Utah Congressman Rob Bishop, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives would no longer have the authority to arbitrarily re-classify certain ammunition as “armor piercing.” An attempt to do that earlier this year created a firestorm within the shooting community and on Capitol Hill, and the proposal was tabled. H.R. 2710 would allow importation of firearms and ammunition that are not subject to the National Firearms Act, and prevent arbitrary classification of large caliber rifles, shotguns and shotgun shells as “destructive devices.”
Rep. Bishop’s press release noted that his legislation “will also eliminate ambiguity in current code that could allow the ATF and the Administration to restrict certain types of shotguns and shotgun shells that are used for self-defense.” Bishop asserted that the ATF “has exploited vagaries present in federal gun law to chip away at basic rights. This legislation will slap the over-reaching hand of the federal government and restore some of the freedoms our grandparents enjoyed.”
“Congressman Bishop’s legislation represents a good step forward in the effort to expand Second Amendment rights and self-defense protections,” Gottlieb said. “The right to keep and bear arms may encompass hunting and competition, but that’s not why the Founders included it in the Bill of Rights.
“It is long past the time for the ‘sporting purposes’ provision to be the standard by which firearms and ammunition are judged,” he added. “That standard has allowed a bureaucracy to decide what are ‘good’ or ‘bad’ guns and ammunition, when there has never been any justification. Bishop’s measure is a great idea.”