"The Lautenberg amendment will impose permanent gun bans upon thousands upon thousands of persons convicted of very minor misdemeanors."
-- Gun Owners of America, September 23, 1996
"The [new gun] law also applies to law enforcement officers and military personnel . . . and some police departments have begun disarming officers. . . . [An] estimated 100,000 to 150,000 people last year alone could be subject to the new law, for a total of several million Americans."
-- Associated Press, December 11, 1996
(December 16, 1996) -- Last September, GOA warned the Congress of a looming gun ban that would disarm hundreds of thousands of Americans. Unfortunately, the warning was not heeded and the Lautenberg provision passed as part of the omnibus spending bill. Now it appears that the "chickens are coming home to roost."
Much of the outrage being directed against the law has focused on its disarming of police and military personnel for minor infractions. Already, many police officers have been stripped of their firearms. Police unions nationwide are decrying the new law and pushing for changes. And while GOA would agree that the law's affect on police is outrageous, we would be quick to point out the following: if the law is a bad idea for the police and military, then it is also a bad idea for everyone else.
Another aspect of the law which is coming under fire is it's retroactivity. The Lautenberg provision even bans past offenders from owning firearms. Again, GOA would point out that if the Lautenberg provision is bad retroactively, then it's a bad idea for the future as well.
GOA encourages the members of the 105th Congress to repeal the ENTIRE Lautenberg provision. Please don't just "tweak" the law. A sick patient needs the entire cancer removed, not just pain killers to ease the pain.
Real domestic abusers can (and should) be convicted of felonies. And truly, if an act of domestic violence is serious enough to lose one's civil right to own guns, then it should be a felony, which has already resulted in prohibiting people from owning firearms. But if it is not serious, it should be treated as a misdemeanor -- a penalty which historically has not forced one to forfeit his or her rights.
Finally, GOA would also remind the members of the 105th Congress that the omnibus spending bill included a "gun free zones" provision which creates a virtual one-half mile wide "gun free" circle around every American school (or about a 1,000 foot zone going in any one direction from any school). GOA would ask that this provision be repealed as well in its entirety.