With the left looking for its next big cause, Congressional Democrats have latched onto the Sandy Hook massacre as an opportunity to push gun control. Yesterday alone, eight new bills were introduced relating to gun control. Two conservative bills were introduced relating to ending “gun free zones” under federal law.
Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY) led the way with four bills introduced. Her husband was shot to death in 1993 and her son was severely injured when Colin Ferguson, a mentally unstable black militant (he spent time in his apartment chanting, “all the black people killing all the white people”), shot up a Long Island commuter train.
She has been a longtime gun control advocate. In 1997, she tried to push a federal law that would have mandated trigger locks on all firearms. She introduced legislation that would have forced gun companies to produce firearms that were “child-resistant.” In 2007, she tried an “assault weapons” ban that would have targeted some 65 types of firearms.
The measures McCarthy introduced include:
- Significant restrictions on gun show transactions, which would in effect end gun shows;
- No online purchases of ammunition, and licensing of ammunition dealers, as well as reporting to the federal government all bulk ammunition purchases;
- Prohibition on the transfer, sale, or possession of ammunition clips beyond a certain size.
But McCarthy wasn’t alone. Rep. Bobby Rush (D-IL), apparently ignoring the fact that his heavily gun-controlled home city of Chicago is the nation’s leader in murder with guns, introduced legislation that would create more stringent licensing for gunowners. So did Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ).
And Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) proposed a bill that would prevent anyone under age 21 from carrying a handgun – even though people of 18 can vote and serve in the military.
But wait – there’s more! Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA) pushed forward a bill requiring background checks on all gun sales, which would essentially prevent non-gun-shop transfers of weapons.
Two conservatives, Rep. Steve Stockman (R-TX) and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) pressed forward legislation that would prevent implementation of gun free zones around schools. “In the 22 years since enactment of ‘gun free schools’ there have been 10 mass school shootings,” said Stockman. “Not only has the bill utterly failed to protect our children it appears to have placed them in danger.”
This is just the House. Wait until the Democrat-led Senate gets going. Democrats are coming for guns, and they’re exploiting the tragedy in Sandy Hook to do it, without regard for the best policies to keep children safe while preserving Americans’ rights.
Ben Shapiro is Editor-At-Large of Breitbart News, and author of the upcoming book “Bullies: How the Left’s Culture of Fear and Intimidation Silences America” (Threshold Editions, January 8, 2013).