Not mentioned in the launch of Feinstein's new and improved AWB is a registration provision for grandfathered firearms. This is how it reads on the summary published on her website.
Requires that grandfathered weapons be registered under the National Firearms
Act, to include:
o Background check of owner and any transferee;
o Type and serial number of the firearm;
o Positive identification, including photograph and fingerprint;
o Certification from local law enforcement of identity and that
possession would not violate State or local law; and
o Dedicated funding for ATF to implement registration
Without seeing the actual text of this bill, it is hard to tell if the registration applies to guns in situ or when transferred from one owner to another. Regardless, this provision has no basis in reality, political or otherwise. This is not going to fly, for a myriad of reasons.
The NRA is going to notice this. They'll make sure that the voters notice this. One of the saving graces of the President's gun control recommendations (and that of the Vice President's) was that it did not call for a gun registry.
Come on, does this person not have any mercy for the rest of the Democrats in the Senate?
Bill Clinton did a good thing recently (one of the many good things he has done recently) when speaking to a group of major Democratic donors.
But, Clinton warned, the issue of guns has a special emotional resonance in many rural states — and simply dismissing pro-gun arguments is counterproductive.
While some polls show that the public by-and-large supports several proposals for increased gun control, Clinton said that it’s not the public support that matters — it’s how strongly people feel about the issue.
“All these polls that you see saying the public is for us on all these issues — they are meaningless if they’re not voting issues,” Clinton said.
This man knows what he's talking about. He's
been there and done that.
One conclusion that can be drawn from the 1994 battle was that the weak ban that emerged might not have been worth the cost. And there was a stiff cost. When Congress passed the assault weapons ban, the NRA vowed vengeance. Months later, the Republicans, backed by the still-outraged NRA, romped the Democrats in the midterm election, gaining 54 seats and control of the House for the first time in 40 years. Clinton, for one, believed that voting for the the assault weapons ban had cost about 20 House Democrats their seats—meaning that the measure had caused a political backlash that led to a GOP the majority in the House. If Obama and others confront the NRA, they had better expect—and prepare for—a battle that will reach a crescendo on November 4, 2014.
This provision has to go for the good of the party, in my opinion. As Bill Clinton said:
“Do not be self-congratulatory about how brave you for being for this” gun control push, he said. “The only brave people are the people who are going to lose their jobs if they vote with you.”
Read more: http://www.politico.com/...
1:34 PM PT: Update: Looks like it probably won't even come up for a vote. It doesn't even appear to have 51 votes - much less the 60 needed to break a filibuster.
http://www.motherjones.com/...
6:24 PM PT: The bill can now be found on her website:
http://www.feinstein.senate.gov/...
She opens with:
"to ensure that the right to keep and bear
arms is not unlimited"
What a mess.