Opinion
Congressional Republicans can do better than enact a law declaring the AR-15 rifle the national gun of the united states. Rather the nation needs recognition of the right to carry a handgun, for self-defense, throughout the united states.
New York – -(AmmoLand.com)- Readers of Ammoland Shooting Sports News are probably aware of a House of Representatives Bill (H.R. 1095) introduced by Representative Barry Moore (Republican, Alabama) that “seeks to declare that an “AR-15 style rifle chambered in a .223 Remington round or a 5.56x45mm NATO round . . . the National Gun of the United States,” according to a summary of the legislation.” See New York Post article, published February 23, 2023.
Moore introduced the bill on the Floor of the House on February 17, 2023. The bill was referred to the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability; the Introduction of a bill and referral to the bill are the first two actions in the legislative process, turning a bill into a Congressional statute. See the article in congress.gov discussing this process.
Often a bill languishes in Committee. This occurs when the House Speaker—or, if a bill is introduced in the Senate, the Senate Majority Leader—intends to kill it.
Recall the ill-fated bill, H.R. 38, “Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act of 2017,” “a bill to amend title 18, United States Code, to provide a means by which nonresidents of a State whose residents may carry concealed firearms may also do so in the State.”
An amended version of the bill passed the House after two Roll Call votes on December 6, 2017, and went on to the Senate for action. We were hopeful.
Americans had their best shot at the passage of this bill since, at the time, Republicans controlled both Houses of Congress and the Executive Branch under U.S. President Donald Trump. But our wishes were soon dashed when we saw the bill languishing in a Senate Committee.
In an AQ article posted on November 28, 2018, we wrote,
“Representative Richard Hudson (R-NC) introduced the bill [H.R. 38] on January 3, 2017. The bill passed the House by Roll Call Vote of 231-198, on December 6, 2017. It was sent to the Senate one day later, where it was read twice and then referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
President Trump supports it. The NRA supports it. And rank and file law enforcement officers support it too. But there has been to date no further action on it. The bill sits in limbo. Its prospect of passage is, at present, low. Why is that?
What is the U.S. Senate waiting for?”
In answer to our own question, we learned the reason for the wait. Mitch McConnell wanted the bill to die in Committee. And it did die there.
McConnell deliberately killed it. We had a window of opportunity. And that window is gone.
With fortitude but little fanfare, the author of the 2017 “constitutional carry” bill, Richard Hudson, reintroduced the bill on January 4, 2021. Nothing came of it.
On February 20, 2023, the “constitutional carry bill” was “re-reintroduced,” and, this time, in the Senate. John Cornyn sponsored it. Press coverage is sparse, essentially nonexistent.
President Trump just reiterated his support for it, stating: “I will protect the right of self-defense everywhere it is under siege, and I will sign concealed carry reciprocity,”… “Your Second Amendment does not end at the state line.”
In contradistinction to the “Constitutional Carry” bill of 2023, the “AR-15 National Gun” bill has received a lot of Press attention, most of it negative.
There is a curious thing about the mechanics of the legislative process concerning that bill, though. The bill’s text has yet to be published. News accounts report this, but none of them hazard a guess as to why there is no accompanying text. Usually, if not invariably, a text immediately accompanies an announcement of a bill, but not in this case. Why is that? The likely reason the public hasn’t yet seen the text of the bill is that the bill has no text. And why might that be?
There is nothing to be said about it that isn’t already in the title of it.
More to the point, there is nothing in the title that would suggest the bill accomplishes anything. H.R. 1095 is a vacuous exercise in conception, having no purpose other than to rile Anti-Second Amendment members of Congress, the Press, the Biden Administration, and many others that loathe firearms and Americans’ exercise of their right to keep and bear them. The bill has no other purpose that we can see, which makes the entire effort to prepare it shallow for the time and money spent in the conception and drafting of it, and the sponsor and co-sponsors, callow, that they would place their names on it. As explained on the senate.gov website:
“Bills deal with domestic and foreign issues and programs, and they also appropriate money to various government agencies and programs. Public bills pertain to matters that affect the general public or classes of citizens, while private bills affect just certain individuals and organizations.”
But what would this bill [H.R. 1095] do beyond declaring the “AR-15 is the National Gun of America?” Nothing positive that we can see. And, even in the blanket declaration, there is nothing that serves to strengthen the Second Amendment guarantee were the bill to become law, and much to harm it. That is the principal problem with it.
As a cursory note, the idea implicit in the bill—the notion of a declaration of a “National Gun” isn’t even original.
The sponsor and the co-sponsors of the bill likely didn’t brainstorm this but got the idea after perusing recent issues of the NRA publication, “America’s 1st Freedom.” We perused those issues too. The idea is prominently displayed on the covers of both the January 2023 and February 2023 magazines.
The cover story of the January 2023 issue is “This is My Rifle,” subtitled, “AR-15 is America’s Rifle,” by Serena Juchnowski. The cover story of the February 2023 issue is emblazoned “America’s Rifle,” and it is subtitled, “What the Gun-Control Crowd Doesn’t Want You To Know About AR-Type Rifles,” by the Constitutional Law expert and author of several seminal textbooks on the Second Amendment, Stephen P. Halbrook. The articles and Stephen’s books are well worth a read.
One thing implicit in both articles is the fact that Americans have an unalienable right to keep and bear arms in defense of themselves, close friends, and family, and they have a right to keep and bear arms in defense of the security of a free state, from the tyranny of Government.
But, there is nothing in either account that either expressly asserts a need for or so much as suggests a need for a Congressional Statute that declares the AR-15 rifle as the “the National Gun of the United States.” The reason why is plain.
Americans do not need an Act of Congress to tell them the AR-15 rifle or any other kind of firearm should be designated “THE NATIONAL GUN OF THE UNITED STATES.”
Even the construction of the language of the bill is faulty.
The use of the phrase “United States” alludes clearly and unmistakably to the Nation’s “standing army,” not to the civilian citizenry. And the word ‘Gun’ is a poor choice of terminology as it is a colloquialism and a slang word for ‘Firearm’ or ‘Weapon.’
The drafters of the bill would have done better to use language such as the “Ar-15 Is The Weapon Of Choice Of The American Citizenry.” This phraseology is better as it avoids ambiguity and a negative characterization that the informal verbiage of the actual bill, H.R. 1095, conveys. But this is quibbling. The bill is patently unnecessary at best, and, at worse, it weakens the natural law right to armed self-defense that exists intrinsically in man. It isn’t the sort of thing that Government bestows on man. Therefore, it isn’t the sort of thing that Government can rescind or deny to man.
The bill has nothing to commend or recommend and has many serious failings to discourage informal discussion of it or formal Congressional consideration, debate, or action, over it.
The bill was wrong-headed from the get-go for many reasons. Worse than unnecessary, the mere introduction of it is counterproductive.
The passage of it, unlikely though that is, would do nothing to secure our fundamental, unalienable right to armed self-defense were passage of it to occur.
About The Arbalest Quarrel:
Arbalest Group created `The Arbalest Quarrel’ website for a special purpose. That purpose is to educate the American public about recent Federal and State firearms control legislation. No other website, to our knowledge, provides as deep an analysis or as thorough an analysis. Arbalest Group offers this information free.
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Which part of we aren’t getting ANY laws passed with current numbers don’t you get?
The ONLY law that might pass is one that make’s all politicians involved money. Other than that quit fanboying and dreaming every time these politicians pretend to do something
Hear, Hear!
I get you cynicism and share it when appropriate, this is not it however. You are right about the Senate, however there’s more to the “game” than getting bills passed. Do remember, the 20 America First Patriots that stood tall and forced their hand in the house. I can only think, this is what fighting back is and I also view it as a signal for help, we, you and I, need to keep working sending quality reinforcements. Since this is March 1st, someone needs to go to the floor of the House and declare March .300 Blackout Month! April… Read more »
Not appropriate? There are two distinct classes in America right now. Hunter Biden doesn’t go to jail over his gun deal but anyone else does. These so called “actions” are little more than virtue signaling from politicians wishing to appease. They’ve little value. Folks are easily distracted by meaningless displays
You missed my point. I agree with what you say, but this bill even though you poo-poo it, it has merit and value. We need all kinds of pushback, small, large, significant and yes even insignificant bills that are seemingly unnecessary. Your cynicism of that is what I consider inappropriate. We won’t get anywhere crying in our beer, those days are over, now is time to take it to them left, right, center, 24/7-365. There are no meaningless displays. You need to remember who political theater is for, not you, not me and especially not the leftards, it’s for the… Read more »
BFB, if you still think that elections are a legitimate means to achieve any end, or that they are fair and accurate, I’ve got some beachfront property in Arizona to sell you, you just have to wait a little while until the tide comes in!
As did I for you and again for BFB.
“distracted by meaningless displays.” This is in fact an extreme danger we all face and you are right. However, in regards to the, Hunter Biden gun issue, we are missing a great value in regards to a HUGE defense mechanism that can be argued in the federal courts. “The Hunter Biden Defense.”
THIS is an EXCELLENT idea! I fully support this.
We should give February to Chris Kyle’s favorite weapon, The Barrett M99 and Carlos Hathcock’s Winchester Model 70 Sniper Rifle being as they both went on to the main rally point in February.
The Second Amendment takes precedent over any and all state laws. Shall not be infringed is the strongest language of the Bill of Rights but the most ignored, even by 2A advocates.
The sponsor of the AR bill was simply making the statement that the AR is here to stay! Because there’s plenty of people that seem to think it’s temporary.
This should be a Resolution, not a Bill.
If the AR bill serves to distract and allows passage of national reciprocity, then it is worth while. Otherwise it is just stating the obvious.
And making the gun control crowd go batshit. We need hundreds of these bills, so many they lose sleep at night trying to keep on top of it all.
Instead, we should be passing Bills that dissolve ANY gun law that has NOT saved a life within its first year of enactment and charge back the expense to its authors and sponsors.
Perfectly stated Finnky!
By the authors’ own reasoning, there is also no need for national reciprocity or Constitutional Carry, as they are both ALREADY law of the land per the Constitution. If the corrupt and treasonous gop ctually pass this AR bill, at the very least it should make AR bans that much easier to defeat in court while we violate them in practice as part of civil disobedience and executing our rights.
the Constitution and Bill of Rights is easily to read and understand for the average person unless they do not care about the meaning. maybe comprehension is not a progressives strong suit. this bill is a more useless piece of legislation than normally passed in congress, we are a nation of too many laws. if government(s) followed the law as written there would be no “assault weapons bans, no hcm bans, no background checks, etc.” the sad part of civil disobedience is that it takes much money and many years to litigate these illegal actions by agents of the government,… Read more »
Nope. We need the 2A recognized and enforced in all states. Simple as that.
“On February 20, 2023, the “constitutional carry bill” was “re-reintroduced,” and, this time, in the Senate. John Cornyn sponsored it.” The reason Cornyn sponsored it is because it wasn’t constitutional carry. The only thing he’s done for gun rights is infringe on them. We don’t need a “reciprocity” bill where the federal government dictates how we’re “allowed” to carry across state lines. We need a bill that repeals arms laws, nullifies state infringements, and sets clear and harsh punishments for states that violate the 2A. States can’t deny you your right to a jury trial, your rights against unlawful search… Read more »
Don’t be fooled, folks. John Cornyn sponsoring the Reciprocity Bill is just an attempt to do a little CYA to appear to be pro 2A after stabbing us in the back by sponsoring the Red Flag law last year. He knows there is no way it will pass in the Senate so he’s just blowing smoke for the people with short memories. He’s like Lindsay Graham and Mitch (the Turtle) McConnell. They talk tough when they can’t do anything but can’t be found when they have the power to actually do something. Has anyone found out what rank McConnell’s wife… Read more »
IIRC Mitch’s wife is the daughter of one of the richest China bankers in Communist China.
Mitch McConnell is no friend of the Second Amendment! He’s the reason anti-gun legislation passed in 2022 and signed by Biden. John Cornyn (R) of Texas was the lead sponsor in the senate for the 2022 anti-gun legislation. So all this fake support by both in 2023 session is a cover for past sins and money raising effort for themselves! Both know any pro-gun legislation will not pass the filibuster rule in the Senate this legislative session. Plus Biden will veto if it gets that far. So Texas and Kentucky needs to primary both McConnell and Cornyn with conservative Pro… Read more »
Miss me with that idiocy. We don’t need the feds dictating the terms of carry permits, either. We’re winning on discretionary permitting through Bruen and we’re past the tipping point for permitless carry states. The last thing we need is to invite more government intrusion.
repealing the NFA and banning the ATF so only way otherwise your just being a speedbump for tyrants end goal
We need both laws passed. No one is winning any insurrections with handguns. The AR15 is our national firearm because it is the most effective weaponry against a rogue government that becomes tyrannical. Know of any such governments becoming tyrannical? Say, a government that installs a president, a state governor, and senators through ballot fraud? Or a government that imprisons citizens for years for misdemeanor crimes without speedy trials? Hint – we ain’t talking Zimbabwe or Cuba, folks. We need to acknowledge the true value of magazine-fed rifles, as well as the logic of carrying all across America.
We don’t need any more damn laws on ANY subject!! Every time that some idiot comes up with a new “law” that is passed and signed, it just builds up even more of the ILLUSION that the legal system has any kind of power or authority over us!! What we really need to be focusing on, if we truly want to exercise our freedoms, is the means to TAKE APART that illusion, expose it for what it really is, blow away all of the smoke and smash all of the mirrors so we aren’t fooled any longer! Not even just… Read more »
we need to make ENGLISH our national language first! 2nd we need to get rid of ALL infringements to the CONSTITUTION as far as guns!
we don’t need Concealed Carry Reciprocity, we need nation wide constitutional carry. Also a totally abide by shall not be infringed. What gun law has stopped any criminal?
OTOH, as long as they’re tied up debating a “national gun”, a national dirt, a national desert or whatever, it reduces time they could have been doing something harmful.
“Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.” –one version of many often attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte
“Congressional Statute that declares the AR-15 rifle as the “the National Gun of the United States.” The reason why is plain.” The drafters of this, “Bill” would have bode well had they just made this a Resolution and left it at that.