If Senator Charles Schumer (D) of New York’s revived legislation becomes law, the Second Amendment Foundation will undoubtedly challenge any federal ban on so-called “assault weapons.”
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) presented the Assault Weapons Ban of 2023 S. 25 bill. Republicans opposed it, and an attempt to move it by unanimous consent was unsuccessful.
“Still,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb, “if Schumer tries to run it as an amendment to another bill, or move it via the regular process, we will take action.”
“We have eight pending challenges to state laws banning modern semiautomatic rifles, and we absolutely will challenge a federal ban should one pass,” said SAF Executive Director Adam Kraut. “Aside from the fact that such a ban would be unconstitutional, there is no conclusive research showing that such a ban would actually prevent violent crimes, including mass shootings.”
Bianchi v. Frosh is one of those SAF cases that challenged the Maryland ban. The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard a thorough briefing and oral argument in this matter, and following the 2022 Bruen decision, the U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari.
The high court made it clear that it is prepared to examine whether such a prohibition is constitutional by remanding the case to the 4th Circuit for additional action under the standards set by the Bruen ruling.
“Chuck Schumer has been trying to ban guns since he arrived on Capitol Hill decades ago,” Gottlieb noted. “For him and Joe Biden, achieving a total ban on an entire class of firearms would be a symbolic victory, but completely lacking in substance because violent crime will continue, and all Schumer would do is demand a ban on another class of firearms, to create the false impression he is ‘doing something’ about gun-related violent crime.”
A Rand analysis of numerous gun control studies deemed the data regarding whether the ten-year semi-auto ban from 1994 to 2004 had a significant impact on mass shootings as “inconclusive.”
Fact-checkers have disregarded President Biden’s claims to the contrary.
“The misuse of firearms against innocent victims is both an outrage and a tragedy,” Kraut said, “but criminalizing the possession of commonly-owned firearms will not prevent such incidents, and instead only penalize peaceable citizens whose only crime is exercising their rights under the Second Amendment.”