The Second Amendment Foundation will definitely challenge a federal ban on so-called “assault weapons” if legislation resurrected by anti-gun Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) somehow becomes law. (See February 2024 Downrange column.)
The bill, S. 25, was introduced by the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA). An attempt to move it via unanimous consent failed when Republicans objected.
SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb said, “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.”
One of those SAF cases is Bianchi v. Frosh, challenging the Maryland ban. This case was fully briefed and argued before the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and granted certiorari by the U.S. Supreme Court after the 2022 Bruen ruling. The high court remanded the case back to the 4th Circuit for further action based on guidelines established by the Bruen decision.
“Chuck Schumer has been trying to ban guns since he arrived on Capitol Hill decades ago,” Gottlieb said. “For Schumer 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 review of various gun control studies which looked at the effects of the ten-year semi-auto ban from 1994 to 2004 revealed the evidence was “inconclusive” about whether the ban had a major impact on mass shootings. Claims to the contrary made by President Biden have been rejected by fact-checkers.
“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.”
