BELLEVUE, WA – In their zeal to create the impression they are taking action in the wake of two horrible mass shootings, the House Judiciary Committee will hold a special session later this week to talk about the so-called “Protecting Our Kids Act,” but the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms says this is just reheated leftovers from the long-used gun control menu that has proven to have been a failure.
The 41-page bill encompasses a wish list of gun control measures, including raising the minimum age for purchasing any semi-auto rifle or shotgun to 21 years. It prohibits straw purchases, which are already illegal. It mandates serial numbers on all firearms, ostensibly to track so-called “ghost guns,” but it sounds suspiciously like a backdoor effort at gun registration, and a prohibition on being able to make your own firearms. The bill will require so-called “safe storage” of firearms, which seems unenforceable at best. It bans so-called “large capacity” magazines, which are actually standard equipment for modern semi-auto rifles and most semi-auto pistols. There is also a section on bump stocks.
“We have very serious misgivings about this legislation,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb, “especially about the bum’s rush certain members of Congress are using. Congress needs a cooling-off period. We’ve seen in the past how hasty action has resulted in bad legislation, and we shouldn’t be in a hurry to pass something so we can see what’s in it.
“There is much in this bill that smacks of a registration scheme,” he continued. “There are only two reasons to register guns, to tax them, and ultimately to take them, by confiscation, or by passing more legislation at a future date which will outlaw what people can legally own today.
“If this is a reaction to Buffalo and Uvalde,” Gottlieb noted, “we’ll remind the authors those crimes did not involve ‘ghost guns’ or ‘bump stocks’ or firearms the killers accessed because they were not properly stored. In both cases, the murder suspects bought their guns at retail and passed background checks. They willingly violated several existing laws in order to carry out their heinous crimes. Both perpetrators left warning signs on social media, yet it is the law-abiding gun owners, including honest young adults, who are being penalized.
“If we can’tstop this legislation in the House, we will stop it in the Senate, and if it gets past the Senate, we will likely challenge it in federal court,” he concluded.