Details of Dianne Feinstein’s Upcoming Assault Weapons Ban Proposal Begin Leaking

Everyone saw this coming. Dianne Feinstein, the Democratic Senator from California and co-sponsor of the USA PATRIOT Act extension, has been rumored to be meeting with ATF officials in the past few days and trying to come up with an outline for her next attempt at passing a new assault weapons ban. It seems like she does this once a year anyway, but in the wake of the Obama re-election people are on high alert for anything gun control related. And this time, it seems like all that practice of introducing failed legislation is leading to a more disturbing version of the bill…

David Codrea at the Examiner received the following tip from a source inside the NSSF:

I just heard that Sen. Feinstein’s attorney is meeting right now with folks from FTB and ATF legal (Eric Epstein [legal], Todd Martin [Legal] and Earl Griffith [FTB] and others) to discuss a new SAW ban, that she would want to start pushing through as soon as (if) Obama gets reelected.

– – No pistol grip allowed
– – No HC Mags
– – No grandfathering
– – No sale permissible if in possession

That is all I know right now

The saving grace of the last assault weapons ban was that guns and magazines produced before the ban were exempt from the legislation, meaning that if you had a gun old enough you could ignore the AWB and use your gun as it was designed instead of the AWB compliant hobbling.

Apparently Senator Feinstein’s current plan would not only further restrict the permissible features (by removing the ability to have a pistol grip at all) but effectively requires all owners of AR-15s and AK pattern rifles to modify their guns immediately or be criminals. Doesn’t matter that the gun was legal when you bought it, if you haven’t modified your rifle to comply with the new AWB you would be a criminal.

First and foremost, I’d recommend that the Senator give my article on assault rifles a quick read so that she understands exactly how insane her proposal is in modern America. Then again, I’m pretty sure that rational arguments and statistics aren’t factoring into her blind hatred of everything firearm related.

I see you there, being incredulous of my statement that she blindly hates guns. And to you, I quote the woman herself:

If I could have gotten 51 votes in the Senate of the United States for an outright ban, picking up every one of them . . . Mr. and Mrs. America, turn ’em all in, I would have done it. I could not do that. The votes weren’t here.

The good news is that this has exactly 0% chance of passing right now. None. At all.

As I said yesterday, the midterm elections are going to put a damper on anything the newly re-elected president wants to do in terms of stuff Republicans hate for at least the next two years. And since the president is the head of the party, even if she introduces it there’s a good chance that he won’t be using any of his rather small pool of political capitol on a new AWB instead of an economic package.

Also good news for gun owners: only about 2% of bills she has ever sponsored or co-sponsored have been passed, which puts her in the bottom 10% of the Senate in terms of sponsorship of successful bills. Considering she’s been there since 1992, that doesn’t seem very promising for anything she writes to actually be passed.

Finally, even IF she introduces a bill, AND it passes the Senate, AND it makes it out of committee in the House, it still needs to pass the Republican held House before it makes it to the president’s desk. All of which is highly unlikely. Chances are, just like most crackpot bills, it will die a quick death in a Senate committee.

In short, while its scary, Senator Feinstein’s assault weapons ban proposal is probably going to be a wet squib in terms of gun control. However (and this is what I LOVE about this situation) the mere specter of an assault weapons ban will do more for “assault weapons” sales in the United States and ammunition sales than any other force known to man. Her efforts to ban guns will put them in the hands of more Americans than ever.

Dianne Feinstein: Firearms saleswoman extraordinaire.