Do you like Cuomo’s semi-auto gun ban? D.C.’s microstamping requirement? Rahm Emaunuel’s licensure laws? The Senate is about to vote to make all of these into federal crimes, turning gun-owning Americans into prohibited persons — meaning they would NOT be able to own a firearm anywhere in the country!
We have talked about some of the problems with Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy’s gun “trafficking” bill. Leahy apparently thinks that, if he puts a shiny label on the bill, he can ban as many guns as he wants.
But, at its core, S. 54 would make it a federal crime to violate virtually any state gun law.
Section 5 creates a new “prohibited person” classification which makes it a federal crime to transfer a gun if “prohibited by State or local law … from possessing [or] selling … THE firearm or ammunition.” [Emphasis added]
Note the use of the word “the.” We’re not talking about a person who’s banned from owning ANY firearm. We’re talking about a person who’s prohibited by ANY state law from possessing a PARTICULAR firearm.
So do you like Andrew Cuomo’s massive gun ban? He bans more types of guns than would Feinstein’s so-called “assault weapons” ban. Yet under S. 54, transferring a firearm banned by Cuomo becomes a federal crime, punishable by ten years in a federal prison — at least for New York residents and possibly for others.
Do you like California’s proposed ammunition ban? That also becomes a federal crime — at least for California residents and perhaps for others.
So you like gun licensure? A person who doesn’t have a license in New York and Illinois is also “prohibited by State … law … from possessing [or] selling … the firearm.” This becomes a federal crime.
Do you agree with D.C.’s efforts to ban firearms by imposing a microstamping requirement? Transferring a non-microstamped firearm would become a FEDERAL crime under S. 54 — at least for D.C. residents and maybe others.
By voting for S. 54, your senator will be making guns banned by Andrew Cuomo’s expansive law into federally banned guns, as well. He will be saying, “I like every word of gun control which Rahm Emanuel is pushing.”
By the way, Senator Leahy is trying to sell S. 54 as a supposed crackdown on gun traffickers. But there’s not one word in this bill that would punish (or prevent) what happened in Fast & Furious, where our government helped send thousands of illegal guns south of the border, resulting in the murders of hundreds of Mexicans and at least one federal agent.
Moreover, it’s currently illegal to traffic in firearms. It’s illegal to sell a gun to a prohibited person [18 USC 922(d)]. It’s illegal to serve as a straw man [18 USC 922(d)]. It’s illegal to sell a bunch of guns without a license [18 USC 922(a)]. But that’s not what S. 54 is about. The one thing S. 54 would do is to make anti-gun bans being passed by every anti-gun state into federal crimes as well.