On April 9th, a large group of Democrat representatives sent a letter asking President Obama to prohibit the importation of “military style, semiautomatic firearms.”
Led by Reps. John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) and Eliot Engel (D-NY), the letter was signed by “about 80” Democrats.
According to The Washington Times, Conyers and Engel are basing their request on the 1968 Gun Control Act, which they claim gives Obama “broad authority to prohibit guns and ammunition from being imported into the country.” The exception would be if the products are “generally recognized as particularly suitable for or readily adaptable to sporting purposes.”
The Democrat representatives stated that the import ban was enforced under George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton and that restoring it “would make our nation safer.” They asserted that the ban would also “support neighboring Mexico where drug violence is fueled by firearms flowing south from the United States.”
Conyers, Engel, and the other Democrat signatories also asked President Obama to broaden the import ban so that it includes the “newly-developed AK-type pistols that combine the firepower of a rifle with the concealability of a pistol.” They argued that this “new breed of pistol” has no “sporting purpose.”
On October 31th, Breitbart News reported that Associate Justice Samuel Alito clearly stated that “individual self-defense is the ‘central component’ of the 2nd Amendment right.”
In other words, our right to firearms does not revolve around a “sporting purpose”–but defense of life and liberty.
Follow AWR Hawkins on Twitter @AWRHawkins. Reach him at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.
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