5/99 GOA Will Rate the McCollum Amendment as an Anti-gun Vote
(June 16, 1999)
Gun Owners of America
8001 Forbes Place, Suite 102, Springfield, VA 22151
Phone: 703-321-8585 / FAX: 703-321-8408
If you want to spend $50 million on more BATF harassment, and on prosecutors specifically designated to go after law-abiding gun owners, then you’ll love the McCollum amendment. The McCollum amendment would:
* Set aside $50,000,000 and one assistant U.S. Attorney per district to exclusively go after — not murderers, rapists, or robbers — but citizens (frequently law-abiding) who commit minor gun violations;
* Massively beef up the anti-gun BATF;
* Increase federal mandatory minimums for certain gun offenses — offenses which could easily be applied to self-defense shootings;
* Require a mandatory minimum of twelve years in prison for an individual who uses a firearm in connection with a crime consisting of nothing more than threatening to damage property — hence, if a drunk driver runs into your car, killing your whole family, and you shoot the air out of his tires, you are subject to a MINIMUM twelve-year prison sentence;
* Dramatically increase prison sentences for gun dealers doing nothing more than committing minor recordkeeping violations;
* Dramatically increase prison sentences for parents committing minor violations of the labyrinthine rules in 18 U.S.C. 922(x) governing circumstances in which they can teach their children to safely use guns;
* Impose a three to twenty year MANDATORY MINIMUM penalty for a father who asks his child to take his firearm across the street to give to a neighbor, if the individual lives within 1,000 feet of public or private school;
* Impose a five year penalty on an individual who possesses a firearm with intent to take it hunting, if his route would take him within 1,000 feet of a school;
* Potentially impose a thirty year prison sentence on an individual who possesses a firearm with intent to transfer it to his 16 year old son in connection with a hunting trip if he does not simultaneously transfer a written note of permission for his son to possess the firearm;
* Impose many, many more anti-gun provisions.
GOA will rate the McCollum amendment as an anti-gun vote.