New Approach to Ban Modern Sporting Rifles

The Reload has a post (behind the paywall) on the lastest effort to ban modern sporting rifles like the AR-15 by rebranding the rifles they seek to ban.

Senators Martin Heinrich (D., N.M.), Mark Kelly (D., Ariz.), Michael Bennet (D., Colo), and Angus King (I., Maine), who caucuses with the Democrats, introduced the Gas-Operated Semiautomatic Firearm Exclusion (GOSAFE) Act on Thursday. The bill, which is rather poorly written, is broadly similar in its effect to a traditional “assault weapon” ban. The road it takes to get there is more winding, with a few unexpected twists and turns, but the result is a law that’s, if anything, stricter than its predecessors.

The Reload points out that this bill basically does the same thing as a so-called "assault weapon" ban but the sponsor is calling it something else in the hope that it will attract members who in the past have not supported such efforts.  Senator King says this is to address the main criticism of past attempts, that the bans are based on cosmetics, an instead focus on the way the firearm operates. This bill actuall goes further than previous bills despite the new branding.  

On today's (Wednesday) Dana Show, Dana Loesch talked about the new scheme and wondered if it will come back to bite Democrats in next year's election.