The Dangers of Gun Bill H.R. 308

Following on the heels of the shootings in Arizona, congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY, 4 District) has introduced federal bill H.R. 308 The Large Capacity Ammunition Feeding Device Act. Unlike many previous gun ban bills that were an attempt to ban everything imaginable, this bill is very short. It is intended to "Prohibit the transfer or possession of large capacity ammunition feeding devices, and for other purposes"

In other words, it is designed to reinstate the provision in the Clinton Assault Weapons Ban (1994 - 2004) that banned the sale of magazines with a capacity of more than ten rounds.

The H.R. 308 McCarthy bill, "magazine, belt, drum, feed strip or similar device that has a capacity of ... more than ten rounds of ammunition." and goes on to say that under the bill, it "... shall be unlawful for a person to transfer or possess a large capacity ammunition feeding device."

The bill does include a provision that keeps it legal for anyone who already owns any of the above mentioned feeding devices before the bill becomes law, to keep them.

This law is bad for a number of reasons:

First, this country is at war with radical Islamists. The troops who have been deployed since 2002 in the Middle-east use the same thirty-round capacity magazines in their M4/M16 assault rifles as civilians and law enforcement officers use in their AR-15 rifles. The troops use the same high-capacity magazines in their 9mm M11 pistols as civilians police officers use in their 9mm Beretta pistols. The sad fact is that the firearms industry that manufactures weapons for our military cannot survive on military contracts alone.

Without the money spent by civilians on these items, the firearms industry could not keep its doors open, and would not be able to supply our troops and our police officers.

Unless, of course, you want each magazine to cost the Pentagon ten times what it costs now.

Second, it isn't like we haven't already tried this legislation. The Clinton magazine ban was around for ten years. Did we see any reduction in crime because of it? NO. But one thing we did see was that pistols designed to run with higher capacity magazines were not always as reliable when running the hastily-redesigned ten-round magazines. Don't home-owners and the nine million people in this country who hold a concealed carry permit deserve to have a reliable pistol for their defense?

Representative McCarthy's passion for more gun control stems from the murder of her husband on the Long Island Railroad Commuter Train shootings in 1993 when a nutcase with a pistol murdered six people and wounded nineteen others. My heart goes out to her for her loss. But the answer to making the world a safer place is not to disarm law abiding citizens and put them at the mercy of those who wantonly and violently break the law. The answer lies in accepting the constitutional right of those citizens to arm themselves, if they choose, in order to successfully defend themselves and those for whom they care and are responsible.

And if that means carrying a pistol with one or more high capacity magazines, then so be it.

It's the violent nut cases of this world we have to curtail, defeat, and whose rights we should infringe upon, not those who already respect and obey the law.