Swinging For The Fences

Six female Democrats from urban districts here in Georgia have introduced a new gun control bill, as expected. What I didn't expect was that they'd go whole hog to this degree: the bill would, I estimate, convert something like a majority of Georgia families into felons.

This is because the define their terms in such a way as to make felonies out of the possession of the most commonly owned rifles, and magazines of the standard size that come with the most commonly owned handguns. Indeed, even magazines that 'can be converted' to hold more than ten rounds are felonies to possess. Not every family in Georgia owns firearms, but I'd guess that half or so do, and most of them will fall under the proposed ban. Which, by the way, would forbid you from selling the guns you own -- you'd have to surrender them, if I read it correctly, or be a felon.

(But the President isn't trying to take your guns! That's just paranoia talking!)

I'll keep an eye on it, but frankly, I don't think it'll even get a vote before a single house. It's totally out of order with the state of Georgia.

15 comments:

E Hines said...

you'd have to surrender them, if I read it correctly, or be a felon.

I choose felon.

Separately, isn't upholding both the Georgia and Federal Constitutions part of their oath of office? If so, how is proffering this bill not an impeachable offense?

Eric Hines

Grim said...

Georgia's Constitution says: "The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed, but the General Assembly shall have power to prescribe the manner in which arms may be borne."

I guess they're taking a very broad reading of what 'the manner' entails. It's not a plausible reading, of course, but we long ago abandoned constitutionalism in this country for 'what the government can get away with today.'

Grim said...

Though you ask a good question about proposing blatantly unconstitutional legislation, after a little research I'm even less concerned about the bill than before. The head of the committee to which it has been assigned won the NRA's "Defender of Freedom" award in 2014. My guess is it will die in committee and never see a floor vote.

raven said...

We have a similar bill in WA, and a just introduced bill requiring 5 cents a round tax on ammo and components. So that box of .22 just doubled...
Being as our state has been going steadily stupid AKA Californicated, I am not betting these won't get some traction, as the metro areas control the state.
The change is dramatic- 20 years ago a background check/registration scheme was soundly defeated- and last year a similar bill was passed. I am ever more serious about pulling stakes and looking for a free state. I would feel better I guess if I was east of the mountains in a conservative area, but western washington is a commie incest zone. After the obscene vote fraud with our last chance at a conservative gov, (there were three or four recounts directed and counted by the dem controlled office, when they finally obtained enough ballots to win they stopped. Very similar to the Al Rosen "victory". I have little hope, especially with the Billionaires of Seattle pouring money in- it is one thing to contest the issues on merits, quite another to be outspent 10 to 1 by 5 individuals, and their lap dog media. It was amazing, really- the opposition had roughly 10 million to spend, of which about eight million was donated by the five.
Democracy in action!

Grim said...

This bill is likely to turn up in other states, I would guess, so keep your eyes open -- all of you. It was not written by these six women, none of whom would have the technical expertise sections of it show. It was written by someone who studied the Clinton AWB and has given some thought to how people got around it (e.g., 'thumbhole' stocks are now prohibited as well as pistol grips). This is the work of some gun control group, which is probably farming the exact same language to legislators in every state.

It's extremely hostile, requiring you to render your weapons permanently inoperable, or surrender them to be destroyed (and their destruction is mandated by the law). There's no provision for paying you for your property, and you aren't allowed to sell the stuff out of state even: the government is simply demanding that you yield it up with no compensation. That's unconstitutional too, but they clearly aren't bothered by constitutional concerns.

It'll die in committee here, but keep your eyes open. I'll bet this is the model legislation for the gun control lobby this year. We'll probably see this language in bills all over the place.

Grim said...

I'm guessing, based on the intense focus in places on ".50 caliber incendiary" weapons, that this is Violence Policy Center legislation. They've got a thing about those, although they are quite rare and almost never used in any sort of crime. For some reason the VPC thinks they're especially horrifying and in urgent need of immediate banning.

Grim said...

By the way, if anyone is wondering why I don't think one of the sponsors of the bill actually wrote it, you can find their occupations (and sometimes bios) on the House site. They're a collection of attorneys, one law professor, one insurance agent, and one minister. This was written by someone based on the old Clinton AWB, but with large sections of language aimed at specific technical fixes that were used to bypass the way that law was written.

Ymar Sakar said...

Before Americans know it, there'll be night time no knock raids on their houses looking for illegal drugs, I mean magazines. Maybe they'll get the addresses right this time, but no guarantees from the police unions on that.

Ymar Sakar said...

(there were three or four recounts directed and counted by the dem controlled office, when they finally obtained enough ballots to win they stopped. Very similar to the Al Rosen "victory".

They did that in Florida with Gore too. But they got stopped before they could fabricate enough overseas votes.

It showed that the LEft lacked full penetration of certain regions, since if it was Chicago, they would have gotten 250% of a precinct reporting in 1 day.

In 2008, of course, the Left had perhaps 5-10 million fake votes to use. And it paid them great dividends in this "democracy".

raven said...

The harder they press to disarm me, the more I wonder what they want to do to me when I am disarmed.

One of the interesting features of "gun control" is the lack of imagination of proponents. This nation is filled with extremely creative hobbyists- get their dander up too far and guns will be the least of their worry's.

As Grim says, these bills are written by a special interest group, and farmed out among all the states to see if they can get one to stick- and sometimes they get a state where any anti gun measure would pass.
Maybe the mass protests should be happening on the street in front of the homes of the people who write these bills, instead of the front lawns of the capital. Make it personal, as Mr. Alinsky advises.

E Hines said...

My guess is it will die in committee and never see a floor vote.

That only pushes the string down the road; it doesn't solve the problem.

A useful (and dangerous) precedent could be set by taking action against these legislators. A better precedent would be to have them resoundingly crushed in the next election.

Eric Hines

Grim said...

I have great confidence that the bill will die in committee, and that their districts will continue to return them to office for as long as they want. Their districts think this is a peachy idea. They're culturally so different from the rest of Georgia that they would be better physically located in another state entirely, but they aren't.

raven said...

"They're culturally so different from the rest of Georgia"

Wealthy suburbs? Inner city?

If there was a way to correlate wealthy leftist suburbanites with a gun owner list it would make for a spectacular embarrassment. I think there are an awful lot of "good for me but not for thee" types who would never admit to owning guns to their friends.

Grim said...

A combination of the two, Raven.

Ymar Sakar said...

Maybe the mass protests should be happening on the street in front of the homes of the people who write these bills, instead of the front lawns of the capital. Make it personal, as Mr. Alinsky advises.

I'm sure there is a list for that, somewhere in the de centralized C4 networks.

People have been experimenting with personal home blacksmithing shops, brass/powder reloading systems, and laser etched lathe printers for years now.

They even had instructions for a laser lathe to create the trigger mechanism of an AR 15, to the point where it was deemed sufficiently precise by gunsmiths to be usable.

This would allow true de-centralized weapons and arms manufacturing to be constructed, Off grid, entirely.

Perhaps it already has and I'm merely speaking of the shadow of a shadow.

When paranoid people get active.... well, who knows what they are capable of. I know first hand what they are motivated by, and what resources are under their command. Not precisely, their communities are not penetrated to that degree, even by their fellow comrades. Names and locations are never spread around just like that. Nor are specific supplies written down or communicated, that can also be traced, rendering "on grid", not off grid.

Wealthy suburbs? Inner city?

Ever hear of Cynthia McKinley? She tried going to Palestine, remember.

Yea, those sorts in Georgia.

They're not that different culturally. I know the kind, black caucus slave barons in Atlanta. Probably some other centers.