U.S.A. –-(Ammoland.com)- Your gun rights are now in peril at the national level as never before. The problem this time is not the Hillary Clinton wing of the Democratic Party, it is the supposedly pro-gun wing of the Republican Party.
Formerly solid pro-gun elected officials are crumbling under the pressure of CNN and the New York Times. On Friday, Republican Governor Rick Scott of Florida, a former pro-Second Amendment supporter, NRA member and speaker at the last NRA convention, has just proposed a rash of California-style gun control measures including waiting periods, and stripping young adults of their Second Amendment rights by prohibiting them from purchasing ANY guns. Here in Utah, half of our congressional representatives are now considering some type of gun control.
Not only are these proposals detrimental to your rights, they also will do nothing to make schools safer, and they distract from real solutions to school violence.
The threat is very real this time. This is not just going to blow over like other times. We need to deal with the problem right here in our own backyard starting with Representatives Curtis and Love. We need you to contact both Representatives Curtis and Love and to spread the word on social media for others to make their voices heard.
Going back to at least the early 1990’s, Utah’s Congressional delegation, both Democrat and Republican, have opposed gun control. Not anymore. Now Representative Mia Love (R) has stated that she is considering prohibiting young adults aged 18 to 20 from buying modern sporting weapons such as the AR-15, and Representative John Curtis (R) is calling for some sort of ban on unnamed devices.
Let’s start with the most egregious proposal. According to KUTV on February 22, in an interview with Brian Mullahy, Rep. Love was asked point blank if she would support a bill raising the minimum age to purchase an assault weapon (i.e. modern sporting rifle such as the AR-15) to 21. According to KUTV she responded “I would support it if it came in a comprehensive bill. Yeah, I would support it.”
The USSC has been in discussions with Representative Love’s office and they have indicated to us that no decision has been reached on this issue. We also note that Representative Love’s voting record on gun rights has been good in the past. She voted for National Concealed Carry Reciprocity. Because of this we believe she will listen to reason. This is why it is important that you contact Representative Love and ask her to oppose such a measure.
We see no point in prohibiting young adults from owning America’s most popular rifle simply because of its cosmetic appearance. Just last year Utah lowered the age to get a concealed carry permit to age 18. Young adults have the same rights to self-defense as anyone else and should be free to choose whatever defensive weapon they want. This proposal is all the more ridiculous when you consider that rifles only represent 3.5 percent of homicides nationwide, and modern sporting rifles such as the AR-15 are a subset of all rifles.
Do not fail to act on this because you are older than 20 and think it doesn’t apply to you. If such a bill were to pass, it would give further credence to the gun banners’ claim that so-called “assault weapons” are indeed different and way more dangerous than any other semi-auto rifle. Further bans will occur.
The second call for gun control comes from Representative John Curtis. In a recent e-mail, Rep. Curtis, responding to the Parkland Florida tragedy, wants to look at who can access firearms and he listed four steps he would support immediately—one of which was “We must outlaw any other device that converts a legal weapon into an illegal weapon.”
While it is somewhat unclear exactly what Rep. Curtis wants to ban, if taken literally, his statement would ban many ordinary gun parts. For example, an AR-15 stock could be used to convert a legal weapon into an illegal weapon by putting it onto an AR-15 pistol thereby creating an unregistered short-barreled rifle i.e. an “illegal weapon.” Current law already takes into account those who possess gun parts with intent to convert a legal weapon to an illegal weapon, so there is no need for such a law. Additionally, to date, there is no evidence that the Parkland, Florida shooting involved any type of modified or illegal gun so why bring this up in the context of this tragedy. If certain federal gun laws need strengthening, then those proposals should be discussed on their own merit and not be advanced on the back of a tragedy such as this.
To be fair to Representative Curtis, we not are sure his intent is to ban common gun parts despite the wording of his statement. However, when the e-mail is read in its entirety, there is no doubt that he believes some form of gun control is a solution.
What is most telling and concerns us about Rep. Curtis is his strange statement that he has shown support for the Second Amendment by supporting law enforcement in the building of training facilities. He fails to grasp that while this activity, noble though it may be, is simply helping the state perform one of its functions and has nothing to do with protecting the individual right to keep and bear arms. We also note that nowhere in his list of solutions was national concealed carry mentioned.
Based on this, it is critical that you contact Representative Curtis now and ask him to show true support for the Second Amendment by opposing all forms of gun control. As with Representative Love, Representative Curtis also voted for National Concealed Carry Reciprocity so we believe he can be reasoned with. Do not put this off thinking these Representatives will not listen to you.