Talking About High Profile Gun Amendments to Gun Owners

Assault Weapons Ban 

The assault weapons ban would prohibit the future manufacture and sale of certain military-style firearms which feature modifications intended for combat. A vote for the assault weapons ban is not an easy one for many Senators, but for those who support it, there are three points to emphasize to gun-owning Americans:

• I take a backseat to no one in support of the Second Amendment rights of Americans. Period. But that right doesn’t extend to criminals, the dangerously mentally ill, or to weapons of warfare. 
  
• The assault weapons ban wouldn’t do anything to guns that are already out there. Any gun that is in a law-abiding American’s hands will stay there—whether or not it boasts these combat features. Confiscation is simply a fairy tale used by opponents who feel they cannot win on the pure merits of the legislation.
  
• This isn’t about hunting or sport shooting. These are powerful weapons designed for the battlefield, and they shouldn’t be on our streets. The massacres in Tucson, Aurora, and Newtown would likely have had fewer victims if those killers didn’t have access to these deadly military style weapons. And if we can prevent them from being used in future shootings, it will save lives.
  

Ban on High Capacity Magazines

The ban on high capacity magazines would prohibit the future manufacture and sale of magazines holding more than 10 rounds. Here’s how to talk about it to gun owners:

• The Sandy Hook killer was able to shoot 154 bullets into 20 first-graders and 6 educators in fewer than 5 minutes thanks to his high capacity magazines. When he stopped to reload, 11 children were able to escape. In Tucson, the shooter was finally tackled when he paused to change clips. But Christina Taylor Green, the 9 year old killed in Tucson, had already been struck by the 13th bullet—a bullet that would not have been available to her killer if this law had already been in place. 
  
• High capacity magazines are not necessary for hunting or target practice. Hunters know that it’s the first bullet that matters, not the 15th, 16th, or 17th. 
  
• The amendment would only apply to magazines newly manufactured or sold, and no magazine already in private hands would be made illegal.  
  

Nationwide Concealed Carry Reciprocity 

A concealed carry reciprocity amendment would make it legal for anyone who is allowed to carry a concealed weapon in one state to do so in all of the other 49 states as well, regardless of those states’ laws. Here’s how to explain opposition to this broad and dangerous amendment to gun owners:

• States have very different standards for granting concealed carry permits. Some offer permits to teenagers. Some allow those convicted of violent misdemeanor crimes to carry. Some don’t require any sort of safety training to obtain a permit. Some don’t even require a background check. By making permits from the most lax states valid across the United States, this amendment would say that every state’s gun laws could only be as good as the worst gun law in the country. 
  
• Some states even allow out-of-state residents to drop by and get a concealed carry permit even if they don’t live there. This would mean that residents of one state who are barred from getting a permit there could circumvent those laws by simply getting a permit elsewhere and coming back home to use it.
  
• We know that some states do an appallingly bad job of getting disqualifying records into the background check system. Oklahoma has only 3 mental health records in the system. As late as last year, Pennsylvania had only one. This amendment would leave each state at the mercy of every other state’s poor record-keeping, exposing residents to armed and dangerous people who shouldn’t have gotten a gun in the first place.
  
• States that keep excellent records or require residents to satisfy exacting requirements to receive a concealed carry permit would have no more protection against guns getting into the wrong hands than those that don’t. 
  
• Under this amendment, any person from the 4 states that don’t require any kind of permit to carry a concealed weapon would be allowed to carry them anywhere in the country without any sort of background check or proficiency requirement.
  
• For states like New York, where residents must show good cause to carry a concealed weapon, out-of-state visitors would be allowed to bring in and carry their guns while most New Yorkers wouldn’t have the same privilege.