Posts Tagged ‘assault weapon ban’

Since President Obama announced his support for laws requiring universal background checks on all gun buyers, banning military-style assault weapons and large capacity ammunition magazines, and punishing gun traffickers, there has been significant discussion about the constitutionality of these proposals under the Second Amendment. In order to move forward on real change to our nation’s gun laws, it’s vitally important that legislators understand that the president’s proposed reforms are completely constitutional and are critical to stopping our nation’s gun violence epidemic.

Today, a subcommittee of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing titled “Proposals to Reduce Gun Violence: Protecting Our Communities While Respecting the Second Amendment.” In written testimony submitted to the subcommittee, our Legal Director, Juliet Leftwich, discussed how the Second Amendment presents no obstacle to President Obama’s proposals. The testimony explained that although the U.S. Supreme Court held in District of Columbia v. Heller that the Second Amendment protects the right of a law-abiding, responsible citizen to possess a handgun in the home for self-defense, the president’s proposals are consistent with the Supreme Court’s decisions and the decisions of courts that have evaluated Second Amendment challenges since Heller.

Additionally, the Center for American Progress today released a memo coauthored by the Law Center’s Executive Director, Robyn Thomas, on the constitutionality of the proposals endorsed by the president. The memo concludes that “many forms of firearm regulation remain constitutional, including laws to prevent firearm possession by criminals and limitations on the possession of dangerous and unusual weapons. The measures endorsed by President Obama and proposed by Congress are safely within these confines and reflect the sort of reasonable regulation that the Supreme Court endorsed in Heller and has accepted in a host of other constitutional contexts.”

Senator Feinstein is right. Weapons of war don’t belong on our streets. That’s why she fought for our safety this morning and introduced a new ban on assault weapons – weapons designed for combat that continue to make battlegrounds out of our movie theaters, shopping malls, and elementary schools across the country.

This is a huge step. If Senator Feinstein’s bill becomes law, it will keep many dangerous weapons out of our communities. She is relying on you to make sure it becomes a reality. She has taken a stand for the majority of Americans who believe that these military-style weapons don’t belong in our neighborhoods, and she needs us to take up the fight to ensure that Congress acts. As she said today:

There is one great hope out there and that is you. Because you are stronger than the gun lobby. You are stronger than gun manufacturers … Only if you stand up, if America rises up, if people care enough to call every member of the House and every member of the Senate and say, “We have had enough.”

We all need to make sure that Congress hears our demands. Stand with Senator Feinstein and tell Congress to protect our communities from these weapons of war by supporting the 2013 Assault Weapon Ban.

Sign her petition to Congress here. http://bit.ly/FeinsteinAWB

It is not too late to prevent the next disaster. Today is the day to demand that Congress takes action.