Photo: Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie and National Association for Gun Rights President Dudley Brown with petitions against increased gun control outside the U.S. Capitol.
By: Teresa Mull
The House Judiciary Committee voted on two bills introduced in both the House and the Senate to further gun control at the federal level yesterday. The National Association for Gun Rights (NAGR) delivered more than 1.3 million petitions opposing the legislation.
The so-called “House Judiciary Committee on Gun Violence Prevention” first voted 22-16 in favor of a bill to incentivize states to adopt “Extreme Risk Protection Orders,” otherwise known as red flag laws.
The Congressional Research Service reports:
“Red flag” or “extreme risk protection order” laws generally provide procedures for certain persons to petition a court to order that firearms be temporarily taken or kept away from someone who poses a risk of committing gun violence.
Legislation has been introduced in both houses that would, among other things, incentivize additional states to adopt red flag laws and/or criminalize possession of firearms by persons who are subject to extreme risk protection orders. Some of these measures are briefly described below. Incentivizing Adoption of State Legislation Though varying in the details, several bills—chiefly, H.R. 744, H.R. 1236,
S. 7, and S. 506— would establish grant programs to aid in implementation of red flag laws, conditioning the receipt of such grants by states or Indian tribes on adoption of laws that meet certain requirements (e.g., standards of proof for extreme risk protection orders and time limits on such orders).
Under H.R. 1236, S. 7, and S. 506, states and Indian tribes that have adopted qualifying laws would also be given affirmative preference in the award of other discretionary grants. S. 7 additionally would condition grant funding on a list of related requirements and prohibitions (e.g., requiring that ex parte orders be issued only on sworn affidavits or testimony). Further, the legislation would give states that have already enacted red flag laws that do not fully meet the requirements of the bill a one-year grace period during which they remain eligible to receive grant money so long as “similar” requirements are in place.
The next bill the committee considered concerned banning “high-capacity” (magazines that accept more than 10 cartridges) ammunition magazines.
NAGR Federal Liaison Hunter King and NAGR Vice President Zach Lautenschlager hand-delivered petitions objecting to more gun control to Congress yesterday.
NAGR reported to members:
“Red Flag” Gun Confiscation took center stage at today’s hearing.
This was expected following the endorsement of “Red Flag” laws by powerful Republicans like Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Marco Rubio (R-FL), and even President Trump.
But Chairman Nadler took it a step further when he submitted his amendment for H.R. 1236 earlier today.
His amendment changes the underlying bill from just creating a national grant program intended to encourage states into passing local “Red Flag” bills to a national “Red Flag” Gun Confiscation Law.
That’s right, even if your state has consistently said no to “Red Flag” laws in recent years, this new national bill could be heading to the House floor, passed, and rammed down your throat anyway!
The Gun Control Lobby is doing a great job of lying to the American public about the truth regarding “Red Flag,” but no matter what you hear in the national media, if this bill is signed into law, the door will be wide open for almost anyone to have your guns taken away from you.
No due process. No court hearing. No proof of guilt or any crime committed whatsoever.
Someone simply has to complain to the police about you and before you know it your Second Amendment rights are suspended — and you may never get them back.
This could soon be the reality for every law-abiding American gun owner.
But they didn’t stop there.
Confiscating guns just wasn’t enough to fill their gun control appetites.
Today’s hearing also focused on another one of the Gun Control Lobby’s dream bills — the magazine ban.
We’ve all seen various forms of magazine bans after California’s infamous magazine ban pioneered a movement in the anti-gun crowd to come after our magazines in states where they have consistently failed to pass gun control.
And now not only are they close to succeeding in ramming through a magazine ban on the national level, but it’s worse than we’ve seen in many states.
H.R. 1186 also takes the magazine ban a step further by not just coming after our so-called “high-capacity” magazines, but even many lower capacity magazines that gun owners have long used simply because they might be able to be changed to hold more than 10 rounds.
This despite the overwhelming evidence available proving bans on “large capacity” magazines do nothing to stop criminals looking to do harm.
And, with the latest support from Democrats and Republicans in Congress, it may be enough to ram through this unconstitutional law.
Unfortunately, these recent gun grab schemes are just the beginning of what we can expect out of Congress this fall.
More gun control hearings are being scheduled to push these bills to the House floor as fast as possible.
And we could see a formal hearing on their latest attempt to ram through an “Assault Weapons” Ban before the end of the month!
The House is set on to take up bills concerning “assault weapons” on September 25.
Teresa Mull is editor of Gunpowder Magazine. Contact her at [email protected].