I do not want an "assault rifle" ban

[Kennah]

264. A few thoughts

#1 - Seems very unclear and vague, and I suspect if passed it would be struck down as unconstitutionally vague. Seems we would first have to address the matter of a "person with issues" and what exactly that meant. Assuming we get by that, we do have a constitutional ban on bills of attainder.

#2 - Getting a magazine ban passed would be a serious uphill battle. Limiting the number of rounds one could keep at home seems rather pointless and given to contribute significantly to a widespread black market in ammo sales.

#3 - So a person's gun is stolen, they report it, and they remain responsible for it's use after it is stolen? I seriously doubt one could make that stick constitutionally.

It's not really an issue of difficult so much as it's an issue of what can practically be done and what will have a beneficial effect.

I see there are two paths we can go down that would have any serious effect.

A - Real bans on real things with confiscations/turn-ins. The assault weapon ban is not a real ban, since the item in question can still be owned, sold, and possessed. It is a declaration to manufacturers that they cease producing the item and selling it to the public after a certain date. Same with the high capacity magazine ban. As I recall from the 1994 assault weapon ban, replacements from the manufacturer could be obtained if the original became damaged or destroyed, and this applied to both the guns and the magazines. Estimates say there are 10s of millions of high capacity magazines and millions of "assault weapons" in private hands. Under the 1994 law, "assault weapons" are nothing more than semiautomatic firearms with extra bits of metal on them, like bayonet lugs. If one were going to do something real, then one would propose a real ban on real things, like semiautomatic firearms.

B - A seems like an absolutely impossible path, so I would not bother trying. B is that we pursue the Israeli model and start introducing restrictive licensing for owning handguns, owning semiautomatics, concealed carry, etc. These much more likely to garner support and is more likely to prove effective. We will also have to catch up with Israel on the issue of universal healthcare so that mental healthcare is available.