In response to Dallas, Dems target family time at the range

Congressional Democrats claim legislation they introduced Tuesday will lessen firearm-related accidents by ensuring that “the small hands of children” never fire “military-style weapons” in the United States.

The proposal, introduced in the Senate by Massachusetts Democrat Ed Markey and in the House by Arizona Democrat Ruben Gallego, would ban anyone under the age of 16 from firing automatic and certain semi-automatic firearms at American gun ranges.

“The small hands of children and big power of machine guns are a deadly combination,” said Markey. “The [Help End Assault Rifle Tragedies Act] is simple and straightforward: It prohibits the transfer of a machine gun or semiautomatic weapon to anyone under the age of 16. Not at a gun range, not at a gun show, not while hunting, not anywhere, anytime. Assault weapons are weapons of war and should not be allowed in the hands of children.”

The bill has the support of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence as well as the family of Charlie Vacca, a firearms instructor tragically killed in 2014 when a 9-year-old girl lost control of an Uzi submachine gun he was teaching her to shoot.

“We’re now calling upon kids across the nation and their parents support this brave bill by signing our petition. Kids and assault weapons don’t mix,” they said in a statement.

The lawmakers call the bill a common sense measure that deserves bipartisan support.

“This bill is a common sense step to prevent more families like the Vacca family from having to mourn the loss of loved ones in preventable accidents involving powerful weapons,” Gallego said.

But people with firearms knowledge are noting that the legislation vastly expands the definition of an “assault weapon” to include many popular sport rifles.

As Guns.com pointed out:

To further tighten what is considered an assault weapon under federal law, the bill would mandate that any semi-automatic rifle that can accept a detachable magazine and has either a forward grip, folding or otherwise moving buttstock, grenade launcher attachment, barrel shroud or threaded barrel would meet that standard.

In effect, making such innocuous guns as a .22LR caliber Savage 64 FV-SR rifle an assault weapon by definition.

Likewise, threaded barrels or barrel shrouds on semi-automatic handguns with a detachable magazine would be prohibited from loaning to a youth for target practice or hunting. This could include many popular models such as the Smith and Wesson M&P22.

Programs such as one in use by the Boy Scouts in Maine that use suppressors to help with hearing protection could be endangered under such a mandate.

Todd Rathner, executive director of the Arizona-based NFA Freedom Alliance, added in an interview with the website that the legislation “would prohibit a parent from allowing their child to hunt or target shoot with millions of the most common, popular, and safe firearms in existence, including the ubiquitous Ruger 10/22 .22 caliber rifle – the most popular rimfire rifle in America – if it has common features such as a threaded barrel, folding stock, or a pistol grip.”

“If a parent hands a gun on this massive ‘ban list’ to their child, the parent could go to federal prison,” he concluded.

But that’s the point, isn’t it? To make people have an unreasonable fear of inanimate objects.

As Democrats have learned, making law-abiding and well-trained gun owners fear their weapons is impossible. Making them fear that someone may rat on them at a range for teaching their youngsters to have the same respect for the deadly power of a firearm, however, is a little easier.

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