House Bills

H.R. 47 (Bartlett): This bill would affirm the right of a person to use a firearm to defend himself, his family, and his home.

H.R. 165 (Millender-McDonald): This bill would:

require a trigger lock with the purchase of any handgun from a licensee, irrespective of need –- and would impose civil penalties for failure to comply;

give the Attorney General comprehensive authority to regulate trigger locks –- including $10,000 per lock civil penalties; and

increase the government's role in "educating" people how to store firearms.

H.R. 236 (Towns): This bill would require the Consumer Product Safety Commission to ban any toy handgun that resembles a real one.

H.R. 246 (Jackson-Lee): This bill would:

provide that those 18 to 21 could not handle a handgun or semiautomatic, except under a series of virtually incomprehensible requirements;

require a trigger lock with the purchase of any handgun from a licensee, irrespective of need –- and would impose civil penalties for failure to comply;

prohibit keeping a loaded gun for self-defense –- at the risk of felony prosecution if a child gets hold of the firearm and uses it to cause injury;

prohibit an unaccompanied juvenile at a gun show –- allowing “child abandonment” prosecution if a female child goes to the bathroom without her male guardian in tow; and

increase the government's role in "educating" people about firearms.

H.R. 259 (Jackson-Lee): The bill would amend federal "hate crimes" laws to impose federal prison sentences ranging from 10 years to life for willfully causing bodily harm with a firearm on account of a person's "actual or perceived" religion, gender, sexual orientation, or disability.

H.R. 418 (Sensenbrenner, et al.): This bill would, inter alia, give the federal government comprehensive authority to determine the characteristics of a driver's license and who may or may not obtain one.

H.R. 559 (Lee): This bill –- providing federal school mental health grants –- has as one of its purposes "reduce[d]... use of weapons" in schools.

H.R. 654 (Moran et al.): This bill would cover 50 caliber firearms under the National Firearms Act, requiring registration, fingerprints, tax, etc. –- and would prohibit their transfer.

H.R. 662 (Rangel): This bill would provide for the expungement of "nonviolent" federal misdemeanors and felonies –- but would explicitly exempt any crime involving "use of a weapon," which presumably includes gun-related regulatory offenses by gun dealers and manufacturers.

H.R. 711 (Kennedy): This bill would:

give the Attorney General comprehensive authority to regulate "design, manufacture, and performance of, and commerce in" firearms;

require testing, certification, and notification by firearms manufacturers and importers;

allow unlimited inspections;

exempt the government; and

enforce its provisions through civil penalties, injunctions, recall, seizure, private causes of action, and criminal penalties.

H.R. 731 (Udall, Otter): This bill would reaffirm the right of states to regulate hunting and fishing within their borders.

H.R. 800 (Stearns et al.): This bill would prohibit many frivolous lawsuits against gun makers and gun dealers. It would allow suits for negligent or suicidal injuries resulting from "design defects" and for "negligent entrustment."

H. R. 947 (Lewis): This bill would allow a 25% tax credit for the purchase of a residential gun safe.

H.R. 1136 (Engel): This is the House version of S. 527. This bill would amend current law to give the Attorney General unfettered discretion to determine what handgun ammunition is "armor piercing" –- and can therefore be banned by his unilateral action. It would also require the Attorney General to establish new testing standards for "armor piercing bullets" –- possibly setting the stage for a "penetration" standard that could be used to ban all ammunition.

H.R. 1146 (Paul): This bill would pull the United States out of the anti-gun United Nations.

H.R. 1168 (King): This bill would turn all Brady Law records of persons whose names appeared on the Violent Gang and Terrorist Organization File over to the FBI's central operations, which would presumably keep them forever. People like Senator Ted Kennedy and Representatives Don Young have regularly turned up on such FBI lists, and there is some concern that gun dealerships could be classified as "violent gangs" under recent broad definitions of the term.

H.R. 1225 (Conyers): This bill would turn all Brady Law records of persons whose names appeared on a federal "enemies list" over to the FBI's central operations, which would keep them a "minimum" of ten years. People like Senator Ted Kennedy and Representatives Don Young have regularly turned up on such lists.

H.R. 1243 (Hostettler): This bill would establish a national right to concealed carry for (1) persons with concealed carry licenses, and (2) persons from states like Vermont and Alaska which allow concealed carry without licenses.

H.R. 1288 (Souder): This bill would repeal the D.C. gun ban.

H.R. 1312 (McCarthy): This bill would reinstate the ban on semiautomatic firearms and magazines.

H.R. 1384 (Gingrey, Kingston, Bradley (N.H.), et al.): This bill would allow a dealer to sell any firearm to an out-of-state resident at his business or a gun show, so long as the dealer complies with the law of the state where his business is located.

H.R. 1415 (McCarthy & Dingell): This bill would require states and federal government agencies to provide the Instantcheck system with any records "which are relevant to a determination of whether a person is disqualified from possessing or receiving a firearm under [18 U.S.C. 922(g)]." If a state wishes to remain eligible for a waiver of the 10% matching requirement under 42 U.S.C. 14601, it must provide 90% of those records, which could include:

diversion and arrest records necessary to determine who is "an unlawful user of or addicted to any controlled substance";

VA and state psychiatric records necessary to determine who "has been adjudicated a mental defective or who has been committed to a mental institution";

whatever records are necessary to determine whether there are illegal aliens in a state, including, arguably tax records, employment records, and even library records.

The bill would provide $250,000,000 a year to implement this provision.

H.R. 1423 (Pacrell, McCarthy, Kennedy, et al.): This bill would make it a felony to sell any handgun that cannot be "personalized" (i.e., containing an "integral... device or feature that... allows the handgun to be fired only by a particular individual..."). The provision kicks in only upon a finding by the Comptroller General that such technology is "commercially feasible," but it does not appear to have a grandfather clause.

H.R. 1528 (Sensenbrenner): This bill would stiffen federal sentencing for drug offenses and other related crimes. In particular, it would significantly enhance sentences if:

"a firearm was possessed in or near the presence of a person under the age of 18, or in a location in which a person under the age of 18 resides...";

a firearm was "brandished"; or

"2 or more firearms were possessed...."

H.R. 1566 (Issa): This bill would make a "technical correction" concerning the sale and labeling of toy guns.

H.R. 1603 (Gingrey): This bill would require the FBI to make videorecordings of test firings and make them available to the owner of the firearm, without charge, on request.

H.R. 1703 (Paul): This bill would repeal the Brady Law and the sporting purposes exception.

H.R. 1931 (McCarthy): This bill would overturn the Supreme Court's decision in the Small case by making a person a prohibited person on the basis of any foreign felony conviction.

H.R. 2088 (Gibbons and 53 others): This bill would grant "amnesty" (for a 90-day period) to veterans and their families who are in possession of unregistered firearms coved by the National Firearms Act.

H.R. 2217 (Engel & Owens): This bill would grant the Consumer Products Safety Commission jurisdiction to issue rules concerning handgun locks.

H.R. 2621 (Andrews): This bill would, among other things, require bounty hunters to take handgun training courses.

H.R. 2662 (Conyers and 96 others): This “hate crimes” bill would create a special crime for grazing a homosexual with a firearm, but would exempt from that crime an act in which the homosexual was beaten to death with a baseball bat or tire iron.

H.R. 2862: This is the State-Justice-Commerce Appropriations Bill. Among other things, it would fund BATF at $923,613,000 and would carry over previous years’ prohibitions on consolidating gun records into a national firearms registry, changing the definition of “curios and relics,” relieving Americans from “disabilities” to owning firearms, disclosing the contents of the Firearms Trace System, or denying federal firearms licenses based on lack of business activity. In addition, the bill contains the Smith amendment, which prohibits imposition of a gun tax under the Brady Law.

H.R. 3436 (Boustany and Wilson): This bill would defund the United Nations if it attempted to restrict the Second Amendment rights of Americans.

H.R. 3540 (Castle, McCarthy, Kirk, Shays): This is the most recent bill to regulate and, effectively, prohibit gun shows. Among other things, a gun show promoter who failed to notify every gun show attendee of his responsibilities under the Brady Law could go to prison for five years.

H.R. 3594 (Rothman): This bill would, essentially, force the states to require that police ask questions about and seize firearms in every case of suspected domestic violence.

H.R. 4044 (Jackson-Lee): This is a Democratic border patrol proposal which, among other things, provides for arming border patrol personnel.

H.R. 4363 (Andrews): This bill would require FFL's to conduct iris scans of firearms purchasers.

H.R. 4390 (Langevin and 13 others): This bill -- the so-called "Crackdown on Deadbeat [Firearms] Dealers Act" -- would (1) allow three (rather than one) annual BATF inspections of FFL's, (2) increase civil and criminal penalties for firearms offenses, particularly regulatory violations, and (3) authorize $100,000,000 a year for more BATF agents.

H.R. 4477 (English): This bill would expand the ability of federal judges to carry firearms.

H.R. 4439 (Lungren, Rogers, McCaul, Reichert, Harris): This is a Transportation Security Administration reorganization bill. Among other things, it would codify the prohibition on flying by most persons who don't have a National ID card issued by a state pursuant to the federal mandates of the so-called "Real ID Act."

H.R. 4547 (Stearns): This is a concealed carry reciprocity bill, but it would not benefit states, such as Vermont, which allow concealed carry without a carry license.

H.R. 5005 (Smith): This bill would:

allow possession of machineguns for testing and security purposes without complying with the National Firearms Act;

make permanent the Smith Amendment (banning the gun tax) and the appropriations prohibition on electronically retrieving firearms purchaser information;

eliminate the parental permission slip requirement when a parent is actually supervising a child's use of a handgun;

allow barrels and receivers to be imported for repair or replacement, notwithstanding import ban restrictions;

limit the use of trace information in civil suits; and

eliminate duplicative reporting requirements and obsolete provisions of firearms law.

H.R. 5013 (Jindal): This bill would prohibit the confiscation of firearms during certain national emergencies.

HR. 5092 (Coble and Scott): This bill would do the following:

Section 2: Current subsections 18 U.S.C. 923(e) and (f) allow BATF to revoke FFL's, after notification and the opportunity for a hearing. Section 2 would create a bifurcated structure:

"Non-serious" violations could trigger civil penalties of up to $1,000 ($5,000 per inspection) and a suspension of not more than 30 days.

"Serious" violations could trigger $2,500 civil penalties ($15,000 per inspection), up to 90 days suspension, or revocation. "Serious" violations would consist of actions which could result in the acquisition of a firearm by a prohibited person or interfere with a criminal investigation.

There would be a five-year statute of limitations, and there would be procedures for contesting penalties (before an administrative law judge in the case of minor penalties and before a court in the case of revocation). These procedures would be relatively pro-defendant –- with a bar to bringing a civil charge after an unsuccessful attempt at a criminal prosecution.

Section 3: This section would allow an FFL applicant to supplement his application, in the case of problems, before a final denial.

Section 4: One of the big battles in McClure-Volkmer was over "scienter" (state-of-mind requirements). In particular, the has been a tendency to diminish what is required for an individual to act "knowingly" or "willfully." This section would define "willfully" to mean "intentionally," which is about the most culpable state-of-mind standard in existence.

Section 5: This section would require BATF to establish guidelines for conducting investigations.

Section 6: This section would explicitly require that the Inspector General conduct a review of BATF gun show inspection procedures.

Section 7: This section would prohibit BATF gun-related information-sharing to other federal agencies unless those agencies agree not to disclose the information to anyone other than law enforcement officials.

Section 9: This section would give an FFL with a revoked license 60 days (with the possibility of an extension) to liquidate his inventory.

Section 10: This section would allow more flexibility in permitting an FFL with a revoked license to transfer his business to another FFL without automatically assuming that the violation giving rise to the revocation continues –- and with an opportunity for the acquiring FFL to cure any defects.

Section 11: This section would decriminalize a non-material (i.e., minor and irrelevant) "false entry" in FFL records. H.R. 5013 (Jindal): This bill would prohibit the confiscation of firearms during certain national emergencies.

Senate Bills

S. 155 (Feinstein, Hatch, Grassley, Cornyn, Kyl): This is a reincarnation of the old Hatch proposal which could be used to define a gun dealer as a "street gang" and subject it and its employees to prosecution as such.

S. 339 (Reid, Baucus, Stevens, Ben Nelson, Ensign): This bill would reaffirm the right of states to regulate hunting and fishing within their borders.

S. 397 (Craig): This bill would prohibit many frivolous lawsuits against gun makers and gun dealers. It would allow suits for negligent or suicidal injuries resulting from "design defects" and for "negligent entrustment."

S. 527 (Lautenberg): This bill would amend current law to give the Attorney General unfettered discretion to determine what handgun ammunition is "armor piercing" –- and can therefore be banned by his unilateral action. It would also require the Attorney General to establish new testing standards for "armor piercing bullets" –- possibly setting the stage for a "penetration" standard that could be used to ban all ammunition.

S. 578 (Lautenberg): This bill would turn all Brady Law records of persons whose names appeared on a federal "enemies list" over to the FBI's central operations, which would keep them a "minimum" of ten years. People like Senator Ted Kennedy and Representatives Don Young have regularly turned up on such lists.

S. 620 (Feinstein): This bill would reinstate the ban on semiautomatic firearms and magazines.

S. 645 (Lautenberg, Corzine, Schumer, Boxer, Kennedy, Durbin, Milulski, Sarbanes, Reed, Akaka, Dodd, and Clinton): This bill would resurrect the semiautomatic ban and the semiautomatic magazine ban –- and would expand 922(x) provisions in a way that would make it virtually impossible to conduct a youth sporting competition using semiautos.

S. 683 (Lautenberg & Corzine): This bill would make it a felony to sell any handgun that cannot be "personalized" (i.e., containing an "integral... device or feature that... allows the handgun to be fired only by a particular individual..."). The provision kicks in only upon a finding by the Comptroller General that such technology is "commercially feasible," but it does not appear to have a grandfather clause.

S. 853: This bill deals with North American cooperative security. It would, inter alia, require a report on implementing the Canada-U.S. Firearms Trafficking Plan and the feasibility of formulating a firearms trafficking action plan with Mexico.

S. 864 (Inhofe & Voinovich): This bill would supercede a wide variety of anti-gun provisions in federal law with respect to personnel at nuclear plants.

S. 935 (Feinstein, Corzine, Durbin): This bill would cover .50 caliber firearms under the National Firearms Act, thereby requiring a government license in order to possess one.

S. 954 (DeWine): This bill would overturn the Supreme Court's decision in the Small case by making a person a prohibited person on the basis of any foreign felony conviction comparable to a U.S. crime.

S. 1082 (Hutchison and 30 others): This bill would repeal the D.C. gun ban -- including a repeal of D.C.'s authority to ban guns, a repeal of the semiauto ban, a repeal of gun registration, a repeal of the handgun ammunition ban, and a repeal of language which prohibits D.C. residents from possessing guns in their own homes for self-defense.

S. 1145 (Kennedy and 43 others): This "hate crimes" bill would create a special crime for grazing a homosexual with a firearm, but would exempt from that crime an act in which the homosexual was beaten to death with a baseball bat or tire iron.

S. 1488 (Vitter and eight others): This bill would defund the United Nations if it attempted to restrict the Second Amendment rights of Americans.

S. 1605 (Kyl, Pryor, Cornyn, Graham, Brownback, Chambliss): This bill is the most recent of a series of bills to create a special status for police and judges. It would add any policeman in any department receiving any federal funds to the list of federal bureaucrats who receive special protection under federal law. Among other things, "interfering" with any federal bureaucrat, whether acting lawfully or unlawfully, would be a new crime. In addition, the ability of retired policemen to engage in national concealed carry would be enhanced.

S. 1968 (Specter, Leahy, Cornyn): This bill would, among other things, prohibit "dangerous weapons," in addition to the currently prohibited "firearms," to the list of items that cannot be carried into a federal court. Whether "dangerous weapons" includes "nail clippers" is not clear from the definition.