Legislative Summary Of Pending Gun Ban Bills In Congress

Two bills introduced in Congress seek to vastly expand the 1994 Clinton gun ban—H.R. 2038 and S. 1034. Below is a brief description of each. Please contact your U.S. Representative in opposition to H.R. 2038 and your U.S. Senators in opposition to S. 1034. Your can call your U.S. Representative at (202) 225-3121, and your U.S. Senators at (202) 224-3121. You can find contact information for your lawmakers by using the "Write Your Representatives" tool at www.NRAILA.org. Additional information on these bills can also be found here, or you can call ILA Grassroots at (800) 392-8683. We will inevitably face additional legislation to re-authorize the ban as well, so please raise your objection to re-authorizing the ban to your federal lawmakers also.

H.R. 2038, introduced by Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.), does not just "reenact" or "reauthorize" the 1994 Clinton ban. It bans millionsmore guns. And it begins backdoor registration of guns. For details on H.R. 2038, please refer to the Grassroots Alert (Vol. 10, No. 19, 5/9/03). (Note: In that edition of the Grassroots Alert, we incorrectly referenced H.R. 2038 as the Conyers/McCarthy bill.)

In the Senate, the Clinton gun ban`s authors, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), introduced S. 1034. The bill is less extreme than McCarthy`s, which they hope will give it a greater chance of passage. The two Senators recently explained their strategy: Feinstein said she would like to push for stronger gun controls, but "it isn`t in the cards right now." "We know that if we push it too far, we`ll have no bill," Schumer added. (Los Angeles Times, May 9, 2003) When Sen. Feinstein says "right now," it has a special meaning. She is already on record supporting gun confiscation, having said, "If I could have gotten 51 votes in the Senate of the United States for an outright ban, picking up every one of them, Mr. and Mrs. America, turn them all in, I would have done it. I could not do that. The votes weren`t there." (CBS 60 Minutes, Dec. 5, 1995)

Like H.R. 2038, S. 1034 does not merely "reauthorize" or "extend" the Clinton gun ban, it: permanently bans millions of guns and amm-unition magazines, including magazines used in the most popular target shooting rifles and conventional handguns; expands the Clinton gun ban by prohibiting the importation of magazines; and places legitimate importers at increased risk of groundless prosecution for a 10-year felony offense.