The Latest Assault Weapon Ban Legislation

In mid June, Armed and Safe alerted us to the introduction of a new Assault Weapons Ban (AWB) bill in the House of Representatives with " Yet another bill to ban so-called 'assault weapons'".

This Bill is HR 6257, the Assault Weapons Ban Re-authorization Act of 2008. HR 6257 is basically a word for word copy of the original AWB that was allowed to sunset in September of 2004.

HR 6257 is a much less restrictive ban than HR 1022. HR 6257 only has 4 cosponsors where HR 1022 has 66. HR 1022 is obviously the greater threat and I have spent a good deal of time commenting on it.

So why am I taking time away from my grand children to comment on HR 6257?

The answer is simple. While the author, sponsors and cosponsors of HR 1022 are Democrats, HR 6257 was introduced, and is cosponsored by, Republicans. Yes, you did read that correctly. Republicans have introduced an Assault Weapon Ban on Capitol Hill.

Congressman Mark Steven Kirk, a Republican from the 10th District of Illinois introduced this bill to the House on June 12th of this year.

Cosponsors are:

Mike Castle, Republican from Delaware.

Mike Ferguson, Republican representing New Jersey's 7th District.

Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Republican representing Florida's 18th District

and

Christopher Shays, a Republican representing Connecticut's 4th District.

If any of these Quislings represent you, contact them and let them know how disappointed you are that they would spend time and money supporting failed legislation that has been proven to do nothing to deter violent criminals. Banning firearms based on cosmetic features is just plain stupid, period. The fact that these congress critters are supporting such legislation shows just how stupid they believe their constituents really are. If they get reelected, maybe they are right.

It is a good thing that none of my representatives would support an Assault Weapons Ban...

Oh...

Forgot about our Senior Senator from Texas. In "We Need to Educate a Senator", I pointed out that while addressing the Heritage Foundation, Senator Hutchison indicated that she supports an assault weapons ban. She went so far as to compare folks who own EBRs to idiots who yell "fire" in a crowded theatre.

Not long after 45superman posted his alert on HR 6257, I wrote Senator Hutchison asking if she would support HR 6257. I have yet to receive a reply. Sometimes it takes awhile, but I usually do get a reply from her office. I most likely will get a letter in the mail soon, but today was my deadline for commenting on this issue.

Here is my letter to the Senator:

Senator Hutchison;

Towards the end of your presentation at the Heritage Foundation on DC v Heller and the Congressional Amicus Brief that you sponsored, you were asked about your views of an Assault Weapons Ban.

You stated:

"I support the Assault Weapons Ban and I think that has been clarified just as shouting fire in a crowded theatre clarifies the right of free speech..."

There are currently two proposed Assault Weapons Bans in the House of Representatives. HR 1022 and HR 6257. HR 6257 was introduced by Congressman Mark Kirk, a Republican from IL. HR 6257 is pretty much identical to the Assault Weapons Ban that expired in 2004.

If either one of these bills were to make it out of the House, would you give it your support in the Senate? I would appreciate a fairly in depth explanation as to why or why not.

As always. Thank you very much for your time.

Now back to Representatives Kirk and company. These "Republicans" need to be slapped, and slapped hard. Several of them are up for reelection, and they deserve to lose. Not only do they deserve to lose, but they need to have their Republican constituents leading the way in seeing them unseated. I know that Congressman Kirk has a strong Independent running against him, I would hope that Republicans would dump Kirk for Allan Stevo.

David over at the War on Guns has been covering Quisling Kirk for awhile.

Our representatives need to know that if Republicans are going to act like Democrats, then we will turn our backs on the party and on the individual Republicans that seem to think they can dismiss us out of hand.