PA Bill Number: HB2235

Title: Providing for regulation of the meat packing and food processing industry by creating facility health and safety committees in the workplace; ...

Description: Providing for regulation of the meat packing and food processing industry by creating facility health and safety committees in the workplace; ... ...

Last Action: Referred to LABOR AND INDUSTRY

Last Action Date: Apr 25, 2024

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Quick support for bill to 'slap over-reaching hand' of ATF :: 06/13/2015

The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms on Friday became the latest group to announce support for legislation introduced Wednesday by Utah Republican Congressman Rob Bishop to fix the “sporting purposes” language in the 1968 Gun Control Act; a measure that should gain plenty of traction among gun owners.

Bishop’s H.R. 2710 is being best defined by its supporters at CCRKBA, the National Shooting Sports Foundation and National Rifle Association. In a press release introducing his bill, Rep. Bishop pulled no punches about the reasons behind the legislation, which might be seen as a direct poke in the eye of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). The measure may be read here.

The agency has come under increasing criticism over the past several years for such fiascos as Operation Fast and Furious in Arizona, Operation Fearless in Milwaukee and the attempt to re-classify popular ammunition for the AR-15 rifle as “armor piercing.”

“The founding fathers recognized that the right to bear arms is fundamentally tied to self-defense,” the congressman said. “This is as true today as it was over two centuries ago when the Bill of Rights was ratified. The ATF has exploited vagaries present in federal gun law to chip away at basic rights. This legislation will slap the over-reaching hand of the federal government and restore some of the freedoms our grandparents enjoyed.”

If passed into law, the measure will replace “sporting purpose” language in the law – which Second Amendment advocates have argued for more than 45 years should never have been there in the first place – with what NSSF said yesterday is “outdated and a hindrance to bringing lawful products to market.” The amendments will prevent arbitrary designations that some firearms and ammunition are “destructive devices.”

“There is no ‘sporting purpose’ stipulation in the Second Amendment,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb this morning in a press release, “and there should not be one in federal law. The right to keep and bear arms is not just about hunting or target shooting. It is time for this restrictive language to be replaced.”

NRA chief lobbyist Chris Cox was first to publicly support the measure, noting, “This important legislation would prevent arbitrary ammunition bans like the one attempted earlier this year by the Obama Administration.” He was referring to ATF’s attempt to ban M855 ammunition for the AR-15 and similar rifles earlier this year. Some believe this contributed to the departure of B. Todd Jones as ATF director.

“With the support of America's law-abiding gun owners,” Cox recalled, “the NRA was able to beat back (President) Obama’s attempt to ban ammunition used by millions of law-abiding Americans every day for target shooting, hunting, and self-defense. This legislation would fix the law to protect us from similar government overreach in the future.”

Larry Keane, senior vice president and general counsel at NSSF, called Bishop’s bill “one of the most important pieces of reform legislation that the firearms and ammunition industry has seen come before Congress in recent years.” He urged Bishop’s colleagues on Capitol Hill to join as co-sponsors.

For decades, the “sporting purposes” and “sporting use” provisions in GCA ’68 have been a thorn in the side of firearms importers and dealers, not to mention Second Amendment advocates who, like Gottlieb, have maintained throughout that the terms are tantamount to bureaucratic Trojan horses. As the Supreme Court determined in District of Columbia v. Dick Anthony Heller in June 2008, the right to keep and bear arms was never written to protect hunting or target shooting.

“The right to keep and bear arms may encompass hunting and competition,” Gottlieb said today, “but that’s not why the Founders included it in the Bill of Rights.”

There has been considerable activity on Capitol Hill in recent weeks regarding gun control. Anti-gun Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) came under a barrage of criticism when she introduced a measure two weeks ago that would require all gun owners to carry liability insurance. Under her bill, proof of insurance would have to be provided before anyone could buy a firearm. It would also carry a fine of up to $10,000 for any gun owner without insurance.

Critics immediately dubbed the bill “Obama Gun Care,” for its similarity to Obamacare, the health insurance law, which penalizes people for not having health care insurance. It was sent to the House Judiciary Committee where, critics hope, it will gather dust.

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