Assault Weapons Ban Letter
A letter written to congress from the NRA Director says:
To respond generally to the claims, please let me stress several provisions of federal law that these four Members apparently overlooked:
Firearm dealers are prohibited from selling a rifle or shotgun to a person under age 18. Firearm dealers are prohibited from selling a handgun to anyone under age 21. It is unlawful to mail or ship any firearm to someone who is not a federal firearm licensee (manufacturer, dealer, etc.). The Gun Free School Zones Act prohibits possession of a firearm on school grounds. AK-47s and similar foreign-made firearms are prohibited under firearm importation law and administrative rules, which will not be affected by the expiration of the Clinton gun ban. Two other guns, among the “19” guns the letters claim will be legal again (both very rare revolving cylinder shotguns) are separately prohibited under the National Firearms Act, which will not be affected by the ban’s expiration.
Also, the maker of the Tec-9 is apparently out of business. There’s more, read the whole thing.
July 23rd, 2004 at 4:21 pm
Private parties can give or sell firearms to persons under the age of 18 in many jurisdictions.
It is lawful for an FFL to ship a repaired weapon directly to the owner of that weapon, even if shipping across state lines.
I thought the Gun Free School Zones Act had been overturned by SCOTUS because it overstepped the bounds of the Commerce Clause.
AK-47s and similiar foreign-made firearms are being made domestically now.
Point being, the NRA isn’t interested in full disclosure either when it might hurt their position.
July 23rd, 2004 at 5:15 pm
AK-47s, AKMs, AK-74s, and AKSUs are not being made domestically. All of these are select-fire weapons, capable of full auto fire, and would therefore be subject to control under the NFA. That is, if they could be imported, or if the manufacture of new full auto weapons for civilian use hadn’t been outlawed by the FOPA of 1986.
What are being made are semi-automatic, Kalashnikov pattern rifles, under various names.
July 23rd, 2004 at 9:22 pm
Kevin: you are right about the Gun Free School Zones Act, which was struck down in U.S. v. Lopez in 1995. However, I’m pretty sure Congress responded by passing another law just like it, with a similar if not identical name, which contains essentially the old law plus a bunch of gobbledyhook about how Congress “finds” that guns is school substantially affect interestate commerce. I don’t know if the subsequent law has ever been challenged, or for that matter, used.
To a large extent, it’s also irrelevant, as almost every state has a similar prohibition of its own.