USCCA: Pittsburgh Gun Ban Won’t Increase Safety

As the Pittsburgh City Council pushes a ban on certain categories of lawfully-owned firearms, the United States Concealed Carry Association (USCCA) warns that the ban will not deliver increased safety for the public.

On January 16, Breitbart News reported that the city council was pushing the ban on AR-15s, BB guns, and starter pistols.

The council’s gun control push lumps together AR-15s, which are semiautomatic firearms, with fully-automatic rifles under the label of “assault weapons.” The gun control initiative targets semiautomatic shotguns too, describing them as “assault weapons” if they have two of the following features:

• A folding or telescoping stock
• A pistol grip that protrudes conspicuously beneath the action of the weapon
• A fixed magazine capacity in excess of five rounds
• An ability to accept a detachable magazine

The council goes so far as to seek a ban on “any toy, antique, starter pistol, or other object that bears a reasonable resemblance to an operable firearm, or any object that impels a projectile by means of a spinning action, compression, or CO2 cartridge.”

USCCA President Tim Schmidt has observed that the ban targets “law-abiding citizens,” as they are the only ones who would comply with it.

USCCA sent a letter to Breitbart News in which Schmidt wrote:

[W]e should all agree that our shared goal should always be on protecting innocent lives and allowing every law-abiding citizen to protect themselves and others.  That is why you should be supporting responsibly armed Americans and not targeting them with unconstitutional legislation that will ultimately do nothing to strengthen public safety.

He added, “Instead of going after law-abiding citizens who want to responsibly own a firearm, the Pittsburgh City Council should be focusing its efforts on real crimes that drive people to take their personal protection into their own hands.”

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.