Miguel has done a fantastic job of covering the anti-gun measures that have been proposed in Florida.
As much as a Florida boy as I am, my immediate ties to the state have all been severed. I have some cousins and one grandmother that lives there, but the my immediate family is all in Alabama.
One of the good things about Sweet Home Alabama, is that when some Democrat gets it into his or her head to try and promote and anti-gun measure here, two-thirds of the state promptly tells them in which orifice they can jam their bill to create maximum discomfort.
As a FL carry permit holder, I wish I could do more to help the good people of Florida.
Florida Democrats as not content with taking away gun rights from the people of the Sunshine State, they want to strip all of us of our gun rights.
Representative Theodore Deutch is the Congressman from Florida’s 22nd district. He represents most of Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, Pompano, and Boca Raton.
Congressman Douche has submitted H.R. 1263, which I finally got to see the text of.
Here is the title of the bill:
To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to subject to the requirements of the National Firearms Act any semiautomatic rifle that has the capacity to accept a detachable magazine
Yes ladies and gentlemen, you read that right.
Here is the whole text of the bill:
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the “National Firearms Amendments Act of 2019”.
SEC. 2. SEMIAUTOMATIC RIFLE WITH CAPACITY TO ACCEPT DETACHABLE MAGAZINE TREATED AS FIREARM UNDER NATIONAL FIREARMS ACT.
(a) In General.—Section 5845(a) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended—
(1) by striking “; and (8) a destructive device.” and inserting “; (8) a destructive device; and (9) a semiautomatic rifle or shotgun that has the capacity to accept a detachable ammunition feeding device.”, and
(2) by adding at the end the following: “The term ‘detachable ammunition feeding device’ means an ammunition feeding device that can be removed from a firearm without disassembly of the firearm action. The term ‘ammunition feeding device’ means a magazine, belt, drum, feed strip, or similar device, but does not include an attached tubular device which is only capable of operating with .22 caliber rimfire ammunition. The term ‘semiautomatic rifle or shotgun’ means any repeating rifle or shotgun which utilizes a portion of the energy of a firing cartridge to extract the fired cartridge case and chamber the next round, and which requires a separate pull of the trigger to fire each cartridge.”
(b) Applicability.—Any person who, on the date of the enactment of this Act, lawfully owns or possesses a semiautomatic rifle or shotgun (as defined in section 5845(a) of such Code, as amended by this Act) that has the capacity to accept a detachable ammunition feeding device (as defined in such section) shall, not later than 120 days after the date of enactment of this Act, register the semiautomatic rifle or shotgun in accordance with section 5841 of such Code. Such registration shall become a part of the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record required to be maintained by such section. The prohibition on possession of an unregistered firearm under section 5861 of such Code shall not apply to possession of such a semiautomatic rifle or shotgun that has the capacity to accept such a detachable ammunition feeding device on any date that is 120 days or less after the enactment of this Act.
(c) Authorization Of Appropriations.—There are authorized to be appropriated to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives such sums as are necessary to carry out this Act.
Yes, if this bill were to pass, EVERY semi auto rifle or shotgun you own that uses a detachable magazine would become an NFA item.
Yes, that includes your Ruger 10/22, Marlin 795, and Remington 597. Don’t forget your Remington 7400 and that antique Remington Model 8.
Since the “term ‘ammunition feeding device’ means a magazine, belt, drum, feed strip, or similar device” that includes your M1 Garand and SKS, because those stripper clips or en bloc loaders are a “feed strip.”
You must register your NFA item.
Some states have restrictions on NFA weapons, Illinois prohibits the possession of NFA items. So depending on where you live, you might lose your right to own one of these all together, even if you register it.
All that assumes that you can register you NFA weapon within 120 days of the bill passing.
I’m not sure if Rep Douche knows that its takes longer so is making the law pretty much impossible to comply with, or if he is just so ignorant he has no idea how time consuming NFA paperwork is.
That is at the current state of the ATF.
Once millions of Americans start their registration paperwork, the ATF is going to get bogged down to a standstill.
Unless the ATF gets a YUGE infusion of money and people, registration will take years.
So the effect of the bill is to send just about every owner of a semi-auto to prison for an NFA violation. Not sure if that is a feature or a bug.
In addition, the drop in sales as a result of this will bankrupt most of the gun industry.
Pretty much, this is about the worst gun bill I’ve ever seen, it blows any AWB out of the water for how bad it is.
Rep Douche is going all Florida Man on Federal gun laws and this has to be stopped.
P.S.
As I read this bill, I realize just how much of a dipshit Rep Douche is.
Yes, he probably did this to go after AR’s but, reading this bill to the letter of the law, you can build just about any AR-15 you want off a AR Pistol lower. There is no upper limit on barrel length. You can have a pistol with a 24 inch barrel if you want it.
You just can’t put a stock on it, but you can put an arm brace.
So your 16 inch AR rifle would be an NFA item, but your braced 14.5 inch AR pistol is totally legal.
These people can’t stop proving just how much they hate what they know nothing about.
“I’m not sure if Rep Douche knows that its takes longer so is making the law pretty much impossible to comply with, or if he is just so ignorant he has no idea how time consuming NFA paperwork is.”
Two possibilities: 1) He might very well know that and conveniently failed to mention it, or 2) he might not know that and would likely be giddy if he learned it.
Either way, excessively burdening firearms owners and creating classes of felons from thin air is a “feature” to them.
The term ‘ammunition feeding device’ means a magazine, belt, drum, feed strip, or similar device, but does not include an attached tubular device which is only capable of operating with .22 caliber rimfire ammunition.
Question: Where does this leave semi-auto rifles and shotguns that feed from fixed tube mags but are NOT .22 rimfire? (e.g. most semi-auto shotguns, and a few center-fire rifles)
Under the new definitions, they don’t use ANY “ammunition feeding device”, so what, then, is their legal status?
The problem here is that, once a rifle, always a rifle. Once this passes there is no way that millions of weapons will be registered within 120 days, meaning that every semiautomatic in the country becomes an illegal NFA item, and every gun owner becomes a felon. Now, as the saying goes, after the first felony, the rest are free.
Finding themselves in possession of a safe full of unregistered NFA items, many gun owners may just remember that the only reason they didn’t previously put in the time and effort to convert those weapons into unregistered machine guns is that they didn’t want to risk becoming a felon. Seeing as how they already are felons, they may as well go full bore.
[…] Two weeks ago I covered a bill by Florida Rep Ted Douche to make all semiautomatic rifles and shotguns NFA items. […]
“Since the “term ‘ammunition feeding device’ means a magazine, belt, drum, feed strip, or similar device” that includes your M1 Garand and SKS, because those stripper clips or en bloc loaders are a “feed strip.””…….In a skewed definition, I suppose it “might” be true. But an SKS or any clip or thje M1 Garand En Bloc clip DOES NOT FEED the action. they are NOT “Feed strips”. The cartridges on the SKS clip must be MANUALLY inserted into the MAGAZINE…….just as one would load a magazine detached from the rifle. Same with the Garand…..the En Bloc clip only HOLDS the ammunition, it DOES NOT feed the action. The springs and feeding mechanisms of both rifles are INTERNAL. Am sure there will be arguments from anti-gunners about it and they will word their legislation to include them.