August 1, 2022
The U.S. House of Representative passed a bill to ban mag-fed semiautomatic rifles by a narrow margin. It was approved by five Democrats and two Republicans. This article describes the NSSF’s response on this new legislation that would ban the sale of AR-type rifles as well as some pistols.
The firearm industry trade association NSSF condemns H.R. 1808, the “Assault Weapons Ban of 2020?, as amended. This legislation disregards the Constitutional right of law-abiding Americans to have and bear arms that are common use, as upheld by U.S. Supreme Court. The NSSF estimates that between 1990 and 2020, there were over 24.4 million Modern Sporting Rifles in America. Lawrence G. Keane (NSSF’s Senior Vice President, General Counsel) stated that “this legislation is as dangerous and revealing of how contempt for which House Democrats hold for Constitution and the U.S. Supreme Court”. “Chairman Jerrold Nadler admitted during debate that he didn’t care that the legislation was unconstitutional. It defied Supreme Court precedent. Instead of representing the interests of ‘the People’, Democratic representatives represent special-interest gun control organizations that seek to disarm law-abiding citizens while making them scapegoat for other crimes. The MSR is still the most popular centerfire semiautomatic rifle in America today. Today, there are more MSRs than Ford F-Series trucks. In both the Heller- and Bruen rulings, the Supreme Court ruled that common firearms are legal for private ownership. Banning a whole class of semiautomatic guns can be seen as an infringement of Second Amendment rights, rights that belong to the people, not the government. However, this legislation also includes semiautomatic shotguns, and handguns. This legislation doesn’t improve public safety as it doesn’t address criminals who disregard the law or are not innocent of any crime. It will instead put lives at risk of those who follow the law by denying them access to firearms for home defense. The 1994 Assault Weapons Ban was ineffective in reducing crime. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention concluded that the “assault weapons prohibition” did not reduce crime. (See Analysis). The FBI’s Uniform Crime Report reveals that more murders were committed using knives, fists, and clubs than those who used rifles. This includes MSRs such as AR-15s.
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