DeLauro Introduces "AR-15 Upgrade Act of 2015"

Been thinking about retiring your old AR-15A1 and buying a suppressed, short-barreled AR for home protection? Need a new AR, because you’ve worn one out, shooting in Three-Gun matches? Been thinking about improving your AR with a mil-spec barrel and bolt carrier assembly, a “flat top” upper with a red dot sight, a low-profile handguard, and a more effective flash hider? 

If so, Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) has a plan that can help you.

This week, DeLauro introduced H.R. 1745, the “Support Assault Firearms Elimination and Reduction for our Streets Act,” to provide a “$2,000 refundable tax credit” to anyone who turns an “assault weapon” over to a law enforcement agency. Depending on the market value of the gun you would give up to get that $2,000, DeLauro’s tax credit could be enough to pay for a new AR, magazines, and a case of ammunition.

DeLauro is one of the most anti-gun members of Congress. She hates AR-15s and, like other anti-gunners, she has no regard for Americans' right to own them. As radical a gun control advocate as they come, DeLauro says, “Assault weapons are not about hunting, or even self-defense. There is no reason on Earth, other than to kill as many people as possible in as short a time as possible, that anyone needs a gun designed for the battlefield.” 

Were we inclined to argue, we could point out that DeLauro is wrong. The AR-15 is the most popular rifle for defensive purposes today. It’s the most widely used rifle for marksmanship training and competitions centered on defensive firearm skills. And it’s illogical to claim that firearms aren’t “about . . . self-defense,” and in the next breath claim that they are “designed for the battlefield,” where everything is about surviving the enemy's attempt to kill you. 

But there’s no point in arguing with DeLauro or anyone else who thinks that if you have any right to firearms at all, it doesn’t extend to the most generally useful rifles on the planet. In their minds, anything that makes a firearm more effective or user-friendly argues against its legality.

Instead, let’s devote our energy to defeating such people at the polls and the insulting, disrespectful and intellectually bankrupt ideas they promote in the court of public opinion. And when we achieve victories, let’s capitalize on our momentum and roll up freedom’s adversaries like old carpet.

Please contact your U.S. Representative and urge them to oppose this legislation. 

You can contact your U.S. Representative by using our "Write Your Lawmakers" tool at www.NRAILA.org, or by phone at (202) 224-3121.