Democrat Rep. David Cicilline is a made member of the House Civilian Disarmament Caucus. After the Colorado Springs shooting outside a Planned Parenthood clinic, the former Providence, Rhode Island mayor took a measured, nuanced view of the crime, blaming the gun and calling those icky black rifles “…weapons of war, not tools of self-defense. They serve no purpose other than to kill.” So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Cicilline, along with 90 co-sponsors, has introduced a new “assault weapons” ban bill . . .
As thehill.com reports,
The Assault Weapons Ban of 2015, which Cicilline will introduce Wednesday afternoon, would ensure that no such guns are manufactured while placing new restrictions on the sale of already existing assault weapons.
But this isn’t just another garden variety, 1995-style AWB. The sponsors’ big concession to that Constitutional inconvenience otherwise known as the Second Amendment is that they’re not planning to come after the rifles you already own.
Under the legislation, gun owners who already have assault weapons would be allowed to keep them, but they could face challenges reselling them.
The House Dems apparently would like to see a new super-duper ultra-extra background check system in place for those trying to sell these awfullest of guns.
The bill would intensify background checks for people looking to buy any of the estimated 8 million to 9 million assault weapons that are already in circulation.
Eight to nine million? We’re not sure, but there are probably eight or nine million ARs in Texas alone. But that’s neither here nor there. We haven’t seen a copy of the bill yet, so we don’t know exactly what an “intensified” background check would look like in practice, but you can bet your bottom round of .22LR it will be laborious, inefficient, and slow.
One more thing the Ocean State’s favorite son included in the bill: killing the 72-hour limit on the current NICS check system.
The law would also close what gun control groups refer to as the “Charleston loophole” that allows a gun dealer to sell a gun after three days if the FBI does not complete a background check in that timeframe.
That means when the basement-dwelling drones who work in the FBI’s NICS branch get behind (or if the boss simply wants put a non-legislative de facto waiting period in place), would-be gun buyers will just have to wait. What could possibly go wrong?
With the GOP firmly in control of the House and this being an election year, Cicilline’s bill has as much chance of seeing a floor vote as I have of affording a Perazzi MX15L any time soon. Still, it’s always nice to know where the other side stands. And this year, they’re only too glad to tell us.
