By: Teresa Mull

Sen. Dianne Feinstein is targeting so-called “assault weapons” again, this time citing “domestic terrorism” for her Second Amendment assault.

The California Democrat reintroduced her favorite “Assault Weapons Ban” last week to “ban the sale, transfer, manufacture and importation of military-style assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines, like were used in the massacre in Dayton, Ohio, where the shooter had a 100-round magazine attached to an assault rifle.”

In a statement, Feinstein said:

“…We’re now seeing a rise in domestic terrorism, and military-style assault weapons are increasingly becoming the guns of choice for these dangerous groups. I’m hopeful that with the new administration and Democratic control of the Senate, we can finally pass commonsense gun reforms to remove these deadly weapons from our communities.”

As knowledgeable Second Amendment supporters know, “military style” weapons are already outlawed. Guns “designed to kill as many people as possible,” i.e. automatic weapons, or machine guns, are not sold to the general public.

Feinstein and her cronies want to re-define terms in order to outlaw guns they think look scary, regardless of their internal functions.

Feinstein also claims that the Assault Weapons Ban the U.S. had in place between 1994 and 2004 “saved lives”; however, criminologist Christopher S. Koper concluded in a federally funded study (“Assessment of the Federal Assault Weapons Ban: Impacts on Gun Markets and Gun Violence, 1994-2003”) that:

“…We cannot clearly credit the ban with any of the nation’s recent drop in gun violence. And, indeed, there has been no discernible reduction in the lethality and injuriousness of gun violence, based on indicators like the percentage of gun crimes resulting in death or the share of gunfire incidents resulting in injury, as we might have expected had the ban reduced crimes with both AWs [Assault Weapons] and LCMs [large capacity magazines].”

Here are more horrors proposed by Feinstein and the Democrats:

Key provisions:

  • Bans the sale, manufacture, transfer and importation of 205 military-style assault weapons by name. Owners may keep existing weapons.
  • Bans any assault weapon with the capacity to utilize a magazine that is not a fixed ammunition magazine and has one or more military characteristics including a pistol grip, a forward grip, a barrel shroud, a threaded barrel or a folding or telescoping stock. Owners may keep existing weapons.
  • Bans magazines and other ammunition feeding devices that hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition, which allow shooters to quickly fire many rounds without needing to reload. Owners may keep existing magazines.
  • Requires a background check on any future sale, trade or gifting of an assault weapon covered by the bill.
  • Requires that grandfathered assault weapons are stored using a secure gun storage or safety device like a trigger lock.
  • Prohibits the transfer of high-capacity ammunition magazines.
  • Bans bump-fire stocks and other devices that allow semi-automatic weapons to fire at fully automatic rates.

Exemptions to bill:

  • The bill exempts by name more than 2,200 guns for hunting, household defense or recreational purposes.
  • The bill includes a grandfather clause that exempts all weapons lawfully possessed at the date of enactment.

Teresa Mull is editor of Gunpowder Magazine.