Democrats Refer Gun Control Behemoth Bill to Committee Amidst Coronavirus Emergency

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Mar 24, 2020
FILE – In this April 10, 2013 file photo, craftsman Veetek Witkowski holds a newly assembled AR-15 rifle at the Stag Arms company in New Britain, Conn. A ruling released Friday, April 6, 2018, by a federal judge in Boston, dismissed a lawsuit challenging Massachusetts’ ban on assault weapons and large-capacity magazines, stating that assault weapons are beyond the scope of the Second Amendment right to “bear arms.” (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File)

As the coronavirus epidemic began to dominate news cycles and alter everyday American life, Congressional Democrats advanced a new ‘behemoth’ gun control bill that goes far beyond anything the American people have ever seen debated in the halls of Congress, combining the worst of the worst gun control proposals into a single piece of legislation.

H.R. 5717, the “Gun Violence Prevention and Community Safety Act of 2020,” was introduced to the House Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security on March 10th, having been sponsored by Georgia’s Hank Johnson and and eighteen other Democrats.

The bill is exceptionally comprehensive in instituting various forms of federal gun confiscation proposals touted by anti-gun elements of American society. It includes:

-A ban on almost all semiautomatic rifles

-A nationwide gun registry

-Federal bans on magazine capacity

-A massive 30% tax on all gun transactions, and a 50% tax on all ammunition purchases

-A ban on gun ownership for Americans under the age of 21

-National ‘red flag’ extralegal gun confiscation programs

-Mandatory storage requirements for gun owners

And a bevy of other gun restrictions that Democrats have long dismissed as pipe dreams beholden to only a fringe element of their party.

Previously these proposed restrictions have been touted as sole proposals in state and federal legislation. The bill’s supporters appear to have rejected the strategy of piecemeal gun control, opting instead for an anti-gun omnibus that could wholly destroy America’s tradition of lawful gun ownership in a single stroke.

It shouldn’t be surprising at all that nationwide gun and ammunition sales are surging rapidly as the coronavirus epidemic rages. Democrats don’t appear to have taken the epidemic as a sign to let up on attacking the Second Amendment. The Sheriff of Los Angeles County openly said that purchasing guns is a “bad idea” during the duration of the epidemic.

The bill may never make it out of committee, but it sponsors deserve lasting ignominy.

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